Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 105: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the plans he has to improve regional balance in sports capital funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19802/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Under the Sports Capital Programme, which is administered by my Department, funding is allocated to sporting and community organisations. It is the main vehicle for development of sports facilities at local, regional and national level throughout the country. Since 1998 the Sports Capital Programme has allocated over €675m to 6,716 sports facility projects. This investment has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improved facilities in virtually every village, town and city. The facilities funded range from new equipment for the smallest clubs, to regional multi-sport centres and national centres of sporting excellence.

For a project to be considered for funding under the programme it must first meet a certain number of basic requirements such as showing evidence of the minimum required level of own funding or evidence of freehold or sufficiently long leasehold to ensure that the facility stays in sporting use. All projects that do not meet these minimum requirements are considered ineligible and are not assessed for funding.

When assessing applications that have met these minimum requirements the Department uses a number of criteria. Applications are scored according to how well they meet these criteria and then ranked in order of priority within their own county. The amount of funding available for distribution under the Programme in each county is determined on a pro-rata basis based on the 2006 Census of Population. This method of assessment and allocation ensures balanced regional development of sports facilities. However, if a county does not have a sufficient number of eligible projects it is of course not possible to allocate that county's share of the total allocations. In these cases the funding is distributed to projects elsewhere.