Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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571. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to announce the sports capital grants for 2017: the reason for the delay in announcing these grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50649/17]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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The 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on 24 February. By the closing date, a record number of 2,320 applications seeking €155 million in grants were received. 

When the programme was launched, it was envisaged that €30m would be available which would have made the allocation of grants particularly challenging. Following the conclusion of the budget discussions and in order to allow as many worthwhile projects as possible to receive some funding, Minister Ross and I were pleased to secure significant extra resources to allocate under this round.

The assessment of all the 2,320 applications is now complete and it is expected that details of the allocations will be announced later this week.