Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Sports Capital Programme (SCP) is the Government's primary vehicle to support the development of sports facilities and the purchase of sports equipment.  The most recent rounds of the programme were in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Following the conclusion of the 2017 Estimates discussions, a total of €52m has been provided for sports capital projects. This will meet all existing commitments under previous rounds of the Sports Capital Programme and Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme.  It will also allow for a new round of the of the Sports Capital Programme to be announced.  In this regard, the new round will be open for applications by January at the latest.  Based on previous rounds of the programme, the assessment process will take a number of months to complete.  I expect that actual grant allocations will begin to be made during the Summer of next year, 2017.  We expect to be announcing more comprehensive details of the new round shortly, hopefully before the Christmas break but in any event, not later than January 2017.