Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I recognise the importance of sport and physical activity for the health and well-being of our society and our people and the need to ensure that opportunities are in place to allow everybody to participate in sport. In budget 2024, we announced an overall budget allocation of €183 million for sport in 2024. This is an increase of 5% on the 2023 allocation. The 2024 allocation for Sport Ireland will deliver an increase of over €7 million in its budget, bringing it to €106.7 million. This level of Government funding will allow Sport Ireland to increase its funding support in a number of very important areas next year, including a €2 million increase in core funding for sporting organisations and a further €2 million increase in funding for the Women in Sport programme.

An additional €1 million in Government funding is being provided for high-performance sport next year. This will support Team Ireland as they prepare for the Olympics and Paralympic Games next year in Paris as well as helping with the continued development of coaching and pathways support.

The sports capital and equipment programme is the main channel of Government support for developing facilities and purchasing equipment for sports clubs and organisations. The 2023 round closed on 8 September, and the total number of applications will exceed the previous record number of 3,106.

The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and I hope to be in a position tomorrow to announce further allocations to grantees to ensure that existing large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, projects are advanced. Following positive engagement with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and his Department, additional funding has been allocated in recognition of the challenges faced by grantees arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, with many projects having to reprioritise their own expenditure plans due to reductions in their income streams. In more recent times, the high level of construction inflation has also presented considerable challenges for grantees. We are also engaging with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and his Department about the funding required to underpin a future round of LSSIF which we will be announcing in the new year.

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