Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Renua Ireland)
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916. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has plans for more investment in indoor sports (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46606/15]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Government investment in sports facilities, including indoor sports facilities, is provided primarily through the Sports Capital Programme and the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme.

The Sports Capital Programme is the Government's primary vehicle for supporting the development of sports facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment. In the lifetime of this Government there have been three rounds of the SCP with €133.6m allocated under the Programme in 2,633 separate grants to sports groups and organisations. The focus of the SCP is now on the drawdown of existing grants. No decision has been made on the timing of any future rounds of the Sports Capital Programme.

Under the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme (LASPP) grant aid to a maximum of €3.8 million is provided to local authorities towards the capital costs of the provision of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. Since 2000, 58 projects have been or are being dealt with under the scheme, of which 50 have been completed and the remaining eight are at various stages of development. I wish to commence the process of opening a new limited round of swimming pool allocations and I have asked my departmental officials to report back to me on this matter.

In addition, the Government is investing in the development of a National Indoor Arena at the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown. The Arena, which is scheduled for completion in November 2016, comprises a National Indoor Athletics Training Centre, a National Gymnastics Training Centre and a National Indoor Training Centre (multi-sports hall). The arena will cater for approximately 26 national sports and as well as providing world-class indoor training facilities for Irish sport, it will allow smaller sporting bodies the potential to host their competitions at local, regional, national and international levels.