Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Ó Domhnaill as ucht an t-ábhar seo a ardú inniu. I am currently up to my eyes in sports capital applications and, all going well, will be in a position to begin allocating funding by the end of the week. This year we had 2,320 applications from across the country, the largest number we have ever had, with a total value of €155 million. Initially we had a budget of only €30 million, which would have made it extremely difficult to meet the demand. Fortunately, the Government was able to increase that allocation in the budget to €60 million in total.That is an additional €30 million. We expect that to break down into €56 million for local projects and €4 million for the regional non-local projects. It is the main vehicle for the Government to assist grassroots sport with capital projects. We also, of course, fund Sport Ireland to the tune of almost €50 million per annum. The sports capital programme is very important. Since the Senator's fellow county man introduced the scheme in 1998, some €911 million has been distributed to clubs throughout the country, and this current round will bring the amount to almost €1 billion. It is a very impressive amount of money.

In answer to the Senator's final question, I am not currently aware of the number of organisations that have been subsequently sold into private hands, but I will seek them out. It is something I would be interested in knowing about, and of course I would share the Senator's concern about protecting the public finances and public money.

Technically, in order to secure the State's investment in facilities aided by sports capital programme grants, a deed of covenant and charge is put in place once accumulated grants to a particular club or organisation exceed a certain threshold. Currently the threshold is set at €300,000. This creates a charge over the property in favour of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport up to the value of the total sports capital programme grants allocated to the club or organisation. The charge comes into effect in the event that the property ceases to be used for the purposes for which the grant was awarded within 15 years. This period can be extended in cases of larger grants. That is something that I think is positive, however the threshold is perhaps something we could look at. The figure of €300,000 is a lot of money, particularly in the current context, where €150,000 is the maximum amount available to any applicant in the local scheme. That is worthy of review, and I will seek such a review to see if there can be a change. However, I do note that the 15-year period is five years longer than the period that is in place with Fáilte Ireland.

Regarding Fáilte Ireland grants, my role and the role of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, does not particularly involve the administration of grants, but rather the setting of general policy. We are not directly involved in setting the terms and conditions for grants allocated by Fáilte Ireland. However, I can confirm that like the charge required under the sports capital programme, Fáilte Ireland requires a legal agreement incorporating a charge over a portion of grant-aided lands. This period is normally ten years, as it was in the case of the example cited by the Senator just now.

For larger capital grants, it is Fáilte Ireland's policy to acquire a charge on the grant-aided property, and Fáilte Ireland's permission is required for any sale while the charge is in place. During the ten-year period of the grant, Fáilte Ireland would only consider agreeing to a sale where the prospective purchaser consents to adhere to the terms and conditions of the original letter of offer for the remaining term of the grant period. The prospective purchaser would also be required to provide appropriate security to Fáilte Ireland during that period. In the event of a breach of the original agreement, Fáilte Ireland would be entitled to seek repayment of the grant.

In the case referred to by the Senator, I am informed by Fáilte Ireland that a deed of discharge was executed by Fáilte Ireland in August 2013 as the grant conditions had been fully complied with. Again, however, I would be very open to reviewing the period of time required, and to ensuring that the thresholds are such that public moneys are protected to the optimum level.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. It is something that is particularly pertinent at the moment, given where we are in the sports capital programme cycle, and it is something that I will certainly pursue further.