Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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579. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the general review of all invalid applications under the 2017 sports capital programme will be completed and organisations informed as to whether their applications have now been approved; when the decisions will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7313/18]

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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580. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of invalid applications under the 2017 sports capital programme that are being reviewed by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7315/18]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 579 and 580 together.

The 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on the 24th February. By the closing date, a record number of 2,320 applications seeking €155 million in grants were received. Allocations were announced in November and December last and full details are available on my Department's website.

All applications that were deemed invalid or partially invalid were invited to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt than an error had been made in the assessment process. The deadline for the submission of appeals from applicants for local projects was 20 December 2017 and in relation to regional projects the deadline was 19 January 2018. 149 appeals were submitted prior to the deadlines and these submissions are now being processed. I expect that this review will be fully complete in the coming weeks and all relevant applicants will be informed at that stage. The following table shows the number of appeals received per county.

I have also requested a more general review of the 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme to include an analysis of all invalid applications. I expect this work to be complete in the coming months and the outcome of this review will help to further improve the application process for future rounds of the programme.