Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 1029: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if there are any rules in relation to the sports capital programme to ensure that grants are allocated in a transparent way and on objective grounds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27399/12]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The 2012 sports capital programme is now closed. The closing date for on-line applications was 5 p.m. on Friday, 1 June 2012. Any organisation that applied under the programme should receive an acknowledgement of its application before the end of July 2012.

Departmental officials will start evaluating all applications as soon as possible. All applications received under the programme are assessed on an individual basis by the Department in accordance with a detailed set of assessment criteria.

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, and facilitating investment in facilities of regional and national strategic importance. In this regard, the assessment process takes into account factors such as the number and quality of the applications received, the amount of funding being sought by each applicant as well as the most recent census of population figures.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport will make the final decision on the allocation of funding.