Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on whether the Border region deserves at least a fair share of the sports funding as against any other country in Ireland particularly in view of the fact that the national lottery gains so much additional funding from cross-Border activity; if he will make a commitment to ensure that they receive at least their fair share in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25364/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, is the primary means of providing funding to sporting clubs, voluntary and community organisations towards the provision of sporting facilities at local, regional and national level throughout the country. The programme is advertised on an annual basis.

All applications received under the programme are assessed by my Department in accordance with a detailed set of assessment criteria as specified in the Guidelines, Terms and Conditions that accompany the application form for the programme. The assessment process also 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 as well as the most recent Census of Population figures. Every effort is made to achieve a balanced geographical spread of funds throughout the country, while also affording priority to projects in areas of social and economic disadvantage.

Over €63 million in sports capital funding has been allocated to border counties between 1998 and 2007 inclusive. The breakdown of these allocations on a county basis is:

Furthermore, it should be noted that these figures represent an average allocation per head, based on 2002 census figures, of more than 16% above the national average during that period.

I would also inform the Deputy that in regard to applications received under the 2007 programme, an average of 87.7% of valid applications from these five counties were funded.

In regard to current funding for sport in the border counties, funding for the development and promotion of sport is provided through the Irish Sports Council (ISC), the statutory agency established in 1999. The ISC's primary source of support for the regions is through the Local Sports Partnership (LSP) network. At present, there are LSPs in two of the border counties — Donegal and Monaghan. To date, Donegal has received €1,127,822 in ISC funding in respect of the period from 2001 to 2007 and Monaghan has received €193,037 in respect of the period 2004 –2007. The process of establishing LSPs in the other border counties is well underway and the national LSP network should be in place in the first half of 2008. Funding to the newer LSPs will then be allocated as part of the annual LSP grant process.