Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the extent to which he has received applications for grant aid towards the provision of sporting or recreational facilities throughout County Kildare; when he expects to respond to these applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41026/06]

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

The 2007 round of the sports capital programme was advertised on 15th and 16th October last. The closing date for receipt of applications was Friday last, November 24th. At this point I can tell the Deputy that in excess of 1,400 applications were received before the deadline, compared with 1,338 under the 2006 programme. Given the large volume of applications received and the complexity of processing and evaluating the information required, it is not possible at this early stage to provide an exact number of applications received from County Kildare. The applications will be evaluated in accordance with the programme's assessment criteria outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme, which accompany the application form. I intend to announce the grant allocations for the programme as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed.

My Department also administers the local authority swimming pool programme, which provides grant aid to local authorities towards the capital costs of a new or replacement public swimming pool or the refurbishment of an existing pool. The deadline for receipt of applications under the current round of the programme was 31 July 2000 and no new applications are currently being invited, the priority being to support those projects remaining to be completed. Of the 57 applications under the current round, two were from Kildare County Council, to replace the swimming pools in Athy and Naas. I approved the tender documents submitted by the Council and maximum grant aid of €3.8 million in respect of those pools on 24 October and 20 July last, respectively.