John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 391: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the reason for the delays in the payment to clubs and organisations after they have been awarded funding under the sports capital grants scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35752/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Sports Capital Programme, which is administered by my Department, funding is allocated to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. Since 1998 the Government has allocated over €725m in sports capital funding to over 7,400 sports projects across the country.

The Deputy will appreciate that the scale of these investments warrants my Department requiring grantees to comply with certain terms and conditions. These include, inter alia, requirements in relation to tendering to ensure value for money and legal requirements to protect the state's investments for larger allocations and ensure that facilities funded stay in sporting use. Staff in my Department liaise, on an ongoing basis, with grant recipients to assist in progressing payments as promptly as possible. If the Deputy has a particular case in mind my Department will be happy to investigate if he will forward the details to me.