Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if consideration has been given to establishing an independent body to administer lottery funding taking it out of the political arena; the reason this has not occurred to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11680/07]

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.

I have no plans to transfer responsibility for the allocation of this funding to an independent authority. I believe that the current arrangements for administering the sports capital programme, which have been applied by successive governments over many years, have been extremely successful in ensuring that the programme is responsive to local needs.

It is entirely appropriate that the Minister for Sport should be in a position to use this important instrument of sporting policy to achieve objectives such as supporting projects of particular local or regional significance or encouraging the development of as many sports as possible. Over the period 1998-2006 inclusive, €483 million has been allocated in sports capital funding in 5,781 projects. This massive investment in the creation of a sporting infrastructure is now yielding benefits both in terms of local community developments and increased participation in sport. The scheme is administered in accordance with pre-determined eligibility criteria, all of which must be satisfied before projects may access funding allocated to them.

I would remind the Deputy that as Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, I am directly accountable to Dáil Éireann for the operation of the sports capital programme. This accountability is ongoing and finds expression, for example, through parliamentary questions, adjournment debates, estimates debates and engagement with Dáil Committees. This is a feature which would be notably absent were the administration of the sports capital programme to be made the responsibility of an independent board. Apart from the obvious issue of how one determines 'independence', experience elsewhere has shown that decisions by independent boards do not always receive universal acceptance. Where a grant scheme attracts a level of applications well in excess of available funding, as is the case with the sports capital programme, unsuccessful applicants will always experience an understandable sense of disappointment whatever the decision-making process.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the methodology that will be used to ensure an equitable distribution of lottery funding for 2007; the role the census of population will play; the means of assessment for deficits in facilities that are available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11679/07]

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

Applications for funding under the 2007 programme were invited through advertisements in the Press on October 15th and 16th last. The closing date for receipt of applications was November 24th 2006. All applications received before the deadline are currently being evaluated on an individual basis by my Department in accordance with a detailed set of assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme.

The assessment process takes into account factors such as the existing level of facilities in an area, the number and quality of the applications received, the amount of funding being sought by each applicant and the strategic positioning of major facilities that may be required. Following the assessment process outlined above, each application will receive a score, which will give its order of priority within its own county.

Recommendations will then be made to me regarding provisional allocations for each county, based on the most recent Census of Population figures. I am satisfied that the programme achieve a balanced geographical spread of funds throughout the country, while also affording priority to projects in areas of social and economic disadvantage.

I intend to announce the grant allocations for the 2007 programme as soon as possible after the assessment and recommendation processes has been completed.