Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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178. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the criteria under which sports capital grant applications are assessed; the details of the criteria and the weighting of each category within the criteria; if there is a specific category in the marking of applications for clubs and organisations in RAPID areas; if he will provide additional detail regarding the part of the application process that deals with disadvantaged areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22769/18]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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The full assessment process and scoring system for the 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme was published in advance of the assessment work commencing and is available on my Department's website at .

As outlined in the manual contained on the website, the assessment process was a three stage process:

1. Applications were first checked for validity;

2. Applications were then given a score between 0 and 3 for each of the six assessment criteria with each of these scores then being multiplied by the weighting for that criteria.  The weighting for each criteria are set out in the table below.  The weighted scores were then added together to give the total assessment score;

3. Allocation amounts were then calculated. The amount allocated to each project was based on a combination of its assessment score, the amount sought and the total amount available for that county based on a per-capita distribution.

The Pobal Deprivation Index was used to determine the disadvantaged status of an area.  Projects from all disadvantaged areas, including RAPID areas, were awarded points under the criteria "Level of Socio-Economic Disadvantage in the Area".  These projects also benefitted in terms of requiring a lower level of own funding to achieve comparable marks with projects in non-disadvantaged areas. 

A full review of the 2017 round of the programme has now been finalised and published on my Department's website (www.dttas.ie). This review suggests some further improvements which should be considered prior to the next round of the programme opening for applications including the possibility of further enhanced weighting for disadvantaged areas.  An announcement in relation to the timing of the next round is expected in the coming weeks.