Dáil debates

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

Sports Capital Programme Administration

9:50 am

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the assessment procedure followed and the objective criteria used in deciding on the allocation of funding under the sports capital programme. [15375/14]

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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In the interests of transparency, can the Minister outline the assessment procedure followed and the objective criteria used in developing a scoring criteria or model for the sports capital programme?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, sends his regrets. He is in Milan promoting the launch of the Giro d'Italia and I am representing him today.

All applications received under the 2014 sports capital programme will be assessed by my officials in the Department. Every application will be assessed by one official and then reviewed by another member of staff. Given the number of applications received and the detail contained therein, this process will take a number of months.

Applications are first checked to ensure eligibility, and eligible applications are than initially assessed against five criteria: the likelihood of increasing participation and-or improving performance and sharing of facilities; the level of socioeconomic disadvantage in the area; the technical merits of the project; the level of own funding available; and the level of sports capital programme funding received by the applicant in the past, with the preference for those who have not received funding. These criteria are designed to give higher scores to applications that will increase participation, where facilities will be shared, that are from designated disadvantaged areas, that is, RAPID areas and CLÁR areas, that have not received substantial funding in the past and are ready to be progressed as soon as possible.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I get the piece that one official looks at the application to see whether it is eligible and that it meets the criteria and a number of others review that. At what point is a number or a scoring reference given to the individual application?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The first step is to see that the applications are eligible, that they have the title to the land, the matching funds, a bank account, tax clearance, etc. After that, only if they are eligible, it is scored based on a certain criteria. It is checked by a second official to ensure the first official did it correctly.

The scores do not necessarily determine the decision on funding. One might find that the highest scored project would take up all the funding and, therefore, it is up to the Minister to decide not to fund that and, for example, give funding to six other projects instead, or one might find that the scores result in all the funding going to the GAA and nothing for anyone else, at which point the Minister has discretion to spread the funding out more evenly.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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To be clear, the scoring is carried out by officials of the Department and the Minister takes the pot of money and, effectively, distributes the loaves and fishes. Does he refer to the score or not?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The scores are put in brackets. For example, the difference between getting seven out of 50 and eight out of 50 is not much. They are put in categories based on their score. After that, the Minister must have regard to the scores but then must make a decision. As Deputy Dooley stated, it is loaves and fishes. Sometimes one may find, for example, that one has €1 million for a particular county, the highest scoring project costs €1 million and one either gives everything to that or one decides not to fund that and to fund seven other projects instead. One may decide that one wants to distribute the funding better throughout the county or that one wants to ensure the different codes get some funding. The Minister must have regard to the scores and certainly cannot fund an ineligible application. I understand that under the previous Administration ineligible applications were funded. That has not happened under this Administration.

Roughly speaking, give or take 10% or 20%, amounts are allocated to each county according to its population and it is never the case that the county in which the Minister is resident can get twice the amount of funding of another country.

10:00 am

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Is it correct to say this is a change from the procedures used under the previous Administration? Am I right to say that under the previous Administration, the civil servants carried out the scoring and recommended the allocation of funding? It seems it is only this Administration that carries out the process of distributing the funds but will the Minister confirm that?

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Under this and the previous Administration, the scoring was done by the civil servants. Under the previous Administration, ineligible and invalid applications were funded on some occasions but that no longer happens. Under this Administration, a particular effort has been made to ensure there is a roughly equal distribution per capita in counties, as that was not the case in the past.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister clarify that under the previous Administration, the notional allocation of funding was done by the Civil Service rather than the Minister? The departure seen in the Minister's tenure is the allocation of money at a political level by the Minister rather than by permanent officials.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure how this was done in the past. The Minister now gets the scores.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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They are done by officials. The amounts are put against those scores. We should bear in mind that the amounts in question are by and large those requested by clubs in the first place. It is not that an official or Minister decides the amount, as it is the amount requested by the applicant.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It would be a first in my experience if a club got everything it asked for. I understand now that somebody at a political level completes the process of distributing the pot of money across projects. I accept that the Minister argues it relates to scores but that is a departure from the existing practice. It is a worrying development as it brings politics much deeper in the allocation of funds.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is the case that clubs get what they request on occasion. For example, there was not enough valid applications from Dublin last time, so any valid application from the county got what it asked for.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It is an advantage having a Minister in the constituency.

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Dublin got a fair share for a change.