Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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991. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of applications from golf clubs which were successful in each of the past three years in funding rounds for sports capital grants funds; if golf clubs are eligible for funding under the current round of sports capital grants; if a certain amount of funding will be allocated for applications from golf clubs under the current funding allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11923/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2012 two golf clubs received allocations under the SCP while in 2014 three golf clubs received allocations. There was no round of the SCP in 2013.

On Tuesday 10th March I was delighted to announce the opening of the 2015 round of the Sports Capital Programme.

Any organisation, including a golf club, can apply for funding under the Programme. SCP funding is focused on community sports where the maximum number of people can participate. The Department may deem any organisation that places restrictions on membership or usage as a private organisation and therefore not eligible for SCP funding. In general, if applications for membership need to be approved by a membership committee or new members must be nominated by several current members then these run the risk of being considered a private club. In considering if an applicant might be commercial the fee structure for members is examined, along with responses to the questions on page 13 of the application form:  what groups will use the facility? and how do you plan to encourage disadvantaged groups and people to use the proposed facility? Simply charging for use of a facility does not indicate that an organisation is commercial but the charges should not be prohibitively high. If an organisation is concerned that its application may be considered private or commercial it should contact the Department for advice.

I do not propose to ring-fence funding for particular sports in advance of the allocations. 

I would advise all those who are interested to ensure that they are registered on the online system before 5pm on Friday 10th April 2015 (if not already registered) and to submit their online applications well in advance of the deadline of 5pm on Friday 24 April 2015.