Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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289. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the 2018 sports capital grant will open for applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13012/18]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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303. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the next sports and community grants will be available to organisations and communities that wish to develop facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13237/18]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 289 and 303 together.

The 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme (SCP) closed for applications on 24 February 2017.  In November and December last, Minister Ross and I announced €60m in allocations to a record 1,800 projects under the 2017 round of the SCP.  Following these announcements, all applicants deemed invalid or partially invalid were invited to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt that an error had been made in the assessment process.  149 appeals were submitted prior to the deadlines. 35 of these appeals were upheld by the reviewers looking at these appeals and all appellants have now been informed of the result of the appeals process. 

In relation to future rounds of the SCP, my Department is now undertaking a general review of the 2017 round with a view to making recommendations on how to improve the process for future calls. This work is also examining what is feasible in terms of the scale and timing of the next round.  I expect this review to be complete shortly and an announcement regarding the next round of the SCP will be made at that stage.