Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 360: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if he has put in place any means of gender-proofing the distribution of sports funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30463/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The national lottery-funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level for projects which must be directly related to the provision of sport and recreation facilities.

The guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme stipulate that "applicants will have to submit rules and procedures as evidence of non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, ethnic origin etc.". This emphasis on ensuring equality of treatment is reflected in the fact that grants allocated under the scheme are made available only to organisations whose membership is open to both sexes. It should, however, be borne in mind that in some situations and sports, patterns of participation may differ as between males and females.

The local authority swimming pool programme, also administered by my Department, provides capital funding to local authorities for the building or refurbishment of public swimming pools. These publicly funded facilities are open to all members of the community.