Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if the amount of funding allocated per county under his Department's sports capital programme is based on the number of applications from a particular county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29924/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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All applications received under the sports capital programme are assessed on an individual basis by officials in the sports unit of my Department in accordance with a detailed set of assessment criteria as specified in the guidelines, terms and conditions for the programme, which accompany the application form for the programme.

Following the assessment process each application receives a score, which decides its order of priority within its own county. Regard is had to the population levels in each county and to the amount of funding available for allocation and providing a pro rata level of funding on that basis, subject to a guaranteed minimum allocation of €253,948 per county.

The assessment process must also take into account, however, other factors such as the existing level of facilities in an area, the quality of the applications received, the amount of funding being sought, as well as the strategic positioning of major facilities that may be required. Applications under the sports capital programme are received from organisations for local, regional and national facilities and each year a number of major regional and national projects are allocated funding. These major projects, which serve a wider regional or national catchment area, are recorded in the list of grants allocated to the county in which they are located.

Recommendations, based on the conclusions from the assessment process and having regard to the amount of funding available for distribution, are made by the sports unit to me as Minister, and I make the final decision on projects and grants to be allocated under the programme.