Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 336: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the amount of national lottery funding awarded by his Department and drawn down by recipient groups in 2005; the expected allocation in 2006; the projections for 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27609/06]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 344: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the extent to which he expects to be able to assist the various local sporting organisations by way of allocation of capital grants for the provision of facilities throughout the country; the amount expected to be spent under this heading in 2006 and in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27617/06]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 336 and 344 together.

The national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, is the primary means of providing capital funding for sports facilities to clubs and voluntary and community organisations in every county throughout the country. The Programme is advertised on an annual basis. Since 1998, the Government has provided unprecedented levels of capital funding for sporting infrastructure throughout the country, a total of €448.56 million has been allocated to 5,642 projects developed by sporting and community organisations. In 2005, almost €63.24 million in sports capital funding was allocated to 644 projects. Of this amount, €14.95 million has been drawn down to date. I recently announced the allocation of €53.745 million to 719 projects categorised as local under the 2006 Sports Capital Programme. I will be making a further announcement of allocations under the 2006 Programme to projects categorised as national, regional and municipal/multi-sport in due course. The Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme, which is also administered by my Department, provides grant aid towards the capital costs of a new swimming pool, a replacement pool or the refurbishment of an existing pool. While my Department's multi-annual capital envelope has been approved for the period 2006-2010, individual subhead allocations have been agreed in respect of 2006 only. Pending final agreement of the 2007 provision, I am not yet in a position to state how much funding will be available for allocation under the above capital programmes in 2007. A total of €67.724 million has been provided towards payments for sports capital grants and €32.3 million for local authority swimming pool grants in my Department's 2006 Estimates.