Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 278: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism whether sports capital funding should be contingent on the merits of the application and in accordance with pre-determined rules applicable to all. [14448/04]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 279: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the number of cases where the assessment made by his Departmental officials was overruled by him in 2002; the value of the projects in which he intervened; and if similar ministerial rulings were made by other Departments. [14449/04]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on whether the overruling of the departmental recommendation to allocate funds under the sports capital programme immediately prior to the general election, to a body in the constituency of a ministerial colleague, is an abuse of privilege; and his further views on whether such intervention is unfair to equally deserving sporting bodies that find that the published rules can be discarded at his discretion. [14450/04]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 278 to 280, inclusive, together.

The national lottery funded sports capital programme allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. It is advertised on an annual basis. A review was completed at the end of 1998. Since then applications for funding each year have been evaluated against detailed assessment criteria published in the guidelines, terms and conditions.

The 2002 sports capital programme was administered by the then Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. The initial assessment of applications received was based on an assumed commitment availability of about €57.5 million which was the value of recommendations made. Subsequently additional funding of €17.3 million was made available. It was reallocated to other projects on the basis of an assessment of factors such as the contribution to local community development, support for minority sports and the strength of local support. The initial assessment recommended funding for 625 projects. As many as 859 projects were approved and included all of the projects recommended in the initial assessment.

None of the projects awarded provisional grant allocations under the programme may access any of the funding until they demonstrate compliance with the terms and conditions communicated to them by the Department. The conditions include compliance with public tendering processes, legal and tax clearance requirements and the submission of invoices in respect of completed work on the project.

The dates for the 2002 sports capital programme were brought forward specifically to facilitate the early announcement of financial allocations. This was done to give the grantees a better opportunity for speedier progress with their projects particularly during the summer months. I shall also explain it in my reply to Question No. 282.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 281: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on whether a club (details supplied) had sufficient funding to justify a substantial grant under the sports capital programme in 2002 and 2003. [14451/04]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The national lottery funded sports capital programme is administered by my Department. It allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. It is advertised on an annual basis.

My Department evaluates applications in accordance with published assessment criteria. To obtain an assessment score applicants must meet basic qualifying conditions. One of these is to have the minimum level of funding. Applicants from designated disadvantaged areas must demonstrate that they have a minimum of 20% of the estimated project cost and other applicants must have 30%.

The club in question applied under the 2002 and 2003 sports capital programmes. Both applications showed evidence of having more the minimum of 30% of the project cost. Subsequently the club received grant allocations of €300,000 in 2002 and €250,000 in 2003 for the construction of a clubhouse.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 282: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the reason that in 2002 and 2004 grant applications were required to be submitted by early January unlike in 2001, 2003 and 2005 when submissions were required in April. [14452/04]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department administers the national lottery funded sports capital programme. It allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. It is advertised on an annual basis.

The closing date for receipt of applications under the 2001 sports capital programme, and indeed for the 1999 and 2000 programmes prior to that, was early February. In 2002 the date set for receipt of applications was brought forward to early January. It facilitated the earlier announcement of financial allocations under the programme and gave the grantees a better opportunity for speedier progress with their projects, particularly during the summer months.

This year's closing date for receipt of applications was 16 January. In 2003, mindful of the requirement to curb the growth of public expenditure generally, it was decided to postpone the closing date to the end of April, two months more than had been the practice prior to 2002. This was done to ensure that expenditure on the programme during the year was contained within approved limits.