John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 138: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if he will grant an extension of time on the draw down of funding to a group (details supplied) to allow the committee to have the local contribution on money in place and to obtain costing of sports equipment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19579/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin 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 group in question were provisionally allocated €9,000 for sports equipment under the 2006 Sports Capital Programme. No drawdown of this grant has taken place to date and, in this context, the Department have recently written to the group asking for an update as to the progress of the project.

The group were also reminded of the terms and conditions attaching to the provisional grant offer in particular, the 'sunset clause' provision. Under that provision, it is the responsibility of the grantee to ensure that the project commences and that the Department is informed of the status of the project within six months of the date of provisional grant allocation and that a substantial amount of work is completed within twelve months. Those provisionally allocated grants under the 2006 programme were asked to achieve this by 30 September 2007. Failure to do so may result in the grant being withdrawn by the Department after that date.

I would advise the group concerned to respond to the request of the Department to provide a written update with regard to any delay in their project and, in this context, to make a case for an extension of the deadline if necessary.