Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. Tá áthas orm deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an ábhar seo. It relates to the sports capital allocations and other governmental allocations from the Minister of State's Department, specifically the matter of a bond being held against the allocation of funding made to sporting and other organisations by Fáilte Ireland. I have two examples to share. I raise the first on behalf of Councillor Sorcha O'Neill of Kildare County Council who is in the Public Gallery this afternoon.

In 2002, a capital allocation of €640,000 was given by Fáilte Ireland to Kill International Equestrian Centre, one of the conditions of the funding being that a charge in favour of the State body be placed on the property for a period of at least ten years. That ten-year period expired in 2013 and a release was executed. Shortly thereafter, miraculously, the facility, having benefitted from this significant State investment, was sold at a huge profit. That is not right and should not be allowed to happen. The second instance involves a project in my own county of Donegal where Fáilte Ireland provided funding in the region of €1 million to a development that was sold earlier this year, inside the ten-year bond execution.

I hope the Minister of State will agree to review the existing provisions. Councillor O'Neill informs me that in the case of the lotto grants given by Rehab, the bond condition extends to any point in the future rather than expiring after ten years. The sports capital grant programme and, by extension, the Fáilte Ireland grant programme, was introduced by the then Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr. James McDaid, in 1998. It has been hugely successful but, 19 years later, there is a need to review this particular clause. Sporting, charitable organisations and community organisations that draw down funding under the scheme may subsequently find themselves in financial difficulty and having to sell their projects on. The problem, however, is that as a result of the State investment, those projects are worth more money.

In conjunction with reviewing the bond clause, consideration might also be given to providing additional departmental assistance to sporting and community organisations that find themselves in difficulty to find more efficient and effective ways of managing their operations.

Will the Minister of State indicate whether any asset tracking is done by his Department in respect of the number of projects that have received State funding and were subsequently sold for private gain? Is any type of score card kept showing those figures?