Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge the Deputy’s ongoing advocacy on behalf of sporting organisations in his constituency. We expect to open the sports facilities fund, which is for clubs up to a maximum of €200,000, next spring with announcements next autumn. It normally runs every two years. We have only ever run two iterations of the large-scale sports infrastructure fund, the first in 2019 and the more recent at the end of 2024. The plan is to reopen that in a shorter timeframe for the third round but it should be borne in mind the last one was a five-year gap. We would like to pull that back but that will be dependent on being able to get capital funding. We are currently engaged in the national development plan review for the next five years and that will be central to the decision on the fund. Our focus now is on those who did receive funding last autumn and working with them to make sure they get on with the project. We see drawdown by the 2019 applicants too and we are making sure all those projects proceed. I know it is something in which the Deputy takes a very big interest in his constituency and I look forward to continuing to work with him on that.

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