Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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224. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of the €10,579,000 capital allocation in civil aviation within his Department for 2019 by specific project; the projects that will be commenced and completed in 2019, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6037/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy has stated, my Department has been allocated €10.579m in capital funding for civil aviation in 2019. Of this amount, €10.4 million is available to fund capital grant schemes under the Regional Airports Programme (RAP). The remainder of the allocation covers IT and accommodation services for associated functions within the Department.

Towards the end of last year, my Department invited the regional airports to submit applications for capital funding in respect of 2019. These applications, which were received in January, are currently being examined by an assessment panel comprising representatives from my Department, the IAA and NewERA. The panel examines the eligibility of project proposals in line with the safety and security related criteria for the associated CAPEX and PPR-C schemes under the Regional Airports Programme.

The assessment process is due to conclude in the coming weeks, and I intend to make an announcement on the allocations for each airport shortly thereafter.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of the €1,493,523,000 capital allocation in land transport within his Department for 2019 by specific project; the projects that will be commenced and completed in 2019, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6038/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The information requested is available on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform website. The Department publishes a "capital tracker", which sets out specific projects and programmes, project timelines, summary descriptions, and the capital allocation for each project and programme. The capital tracker can specifically be located at the web address set out below.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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226. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of the €7,953,000 capital allocation in maritime transport and safety within his Department for 2019 by specific project; the projects that will be commenced and completed in 2019, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6039/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The bulk of capital expenditure under the Maritime Transport and Safety area relates to programme spend by the Irish Coast Guard, including provision for a building programme, IT upgrades, vehicle and boat fleet renewal, pollution equipment and maintenance of telecommunications infrastructure. There is also provision for capital investment by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. A small capital provision covers IT and furniture for the administration of the area.

I have set out in tabular form any available information regarding projects that are ongoing. In most cases, the specific project costs are only determined once a tendering process has been completed and as such, it would not be appropriate to release estimated project costs in advance of the tendering process.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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227. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of the €61,488,000 capital allocation in sports and recreation services within his Department for 2019 by specific project; the projects that will be commenced and completed in 2019, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6040/19]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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The capital funding available for sports in my Department is broken down in to several sub-heads.

D3: An amount of €42,580,000 has been provided in 2019 for the Sports Capital Programme (SCP). This programme is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. As it can take grantees a number of years to complete projects, there are a large number of individual grants on hand at any one time. All allocations under the SCP are published on my Department's website. Due to the number of projects and the nature of the programme it is not possible to identify and list all of the projects which will be completed this year.

In relation to the large projects that are funded under this sub-head, the overall amount also includes a retention amount of €1.5m which remains outstanding in relation to the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh and an amount of €1,022,588 for the Kerry Sports Academy at IT Tralee. Páirc Uí Chaoimh was officially opened in October 2017 and it is expected that the Kerry Sports Academy will open later this year.

D4: An amount of €4.2m has been provided in 2019 for the Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme (LASPP) which provides grant aid to a maximum of €3.8m to local authorities towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. There are four swimming pool projects remaining in the LASPP, namely Castlebar, Lucan, Buncrana and Edenderry. Castlebar is expected to open shortly and Lucan is expected to commence this year.

D5: A capital allocation of €4.9m is provided to Sport Ireland for the development of the National Sports Campus at Abbotstown. This allocation includes €2m for the completion of Phase 2 of the National Indoor Arena. Phase 2 comprises full-sized and half-sized covered synthetic pitches, primarily for soccer and rugby but capable of accommodating all field-sports, together with ancillary facilities. A further €2.9m is provided for general capital maintenance and minor projects at the National Sports Campus.

D6: A capital allocation of €1m is provided to Sport Ireland under Subhead D6 for the disbursement, on behalf of my Department, of Dormant Account Funding to sports measures which are aimed at providing support and interventions to persons from disadvantaged backgrounds and to persons with a disability. In previous years this funding has supported capital projects in such areas as outdoor adventure hubs, sports inclusion disability equipment and artificial turf pitches. It is understood that the Minister for Rural and Community Development will bring forward a new Dormant Accounts Fund Action Plan in early 2019 and the specific sports measures to be funded this year will be proposed and decided in that context.

D7: The National Sports Policy, published on 25th July 2018, provided for a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) with at least €100 million available over the coming years. An amount of €8.8m has been provided in 2019. The fund was launched in November 2018 and is open to applications until 17th April 2019. The fund will initially focus on the requirements and development plans of National Governing Bodies of Sport and Local Authorities. The specific projects that will receive funding will be dependent on the applications received.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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228. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of the €39,482,000 capital allocation in tourism services within his Department for 2019 by specific project; the projects that will be commenced and completed in 2019, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6041/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Details (at subhead level) of the annual funding allocations to my Department for Tourism Services are available in the annual Revised Estimates Volume published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. As the Deputy notes, a total of €39,482,000 in capital funding has been allocated to the Tourism Services programme in 2019 under six different subheads.

Most (€26,110,000) of this Exchequer capital funding voted to my Department will be granted to the tourism agencies under the relevant subheads – E3 and E6 for Fáilte Ireland and E4 and E5 for Tourism Ireland. As decisions regarding expenditure under these subheads are operational matters for the agencies, I have referred the Deputy’s question to both Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland to provide further detail directly to the Deputy with regard to planned expenditure in 2019 under their respective subheads.

The bulk of the balance (€13,300,000) has been allocated under subhead E7 for direct allocations by my Department to Greenways projects. A funding call for Greenways under the recently published Strategy for the Future Development of National and Regional Greenways closed on November 30th 2018 and my officials are currently examining the applications. I expect to be in a position to allocate funding to the selected projects under this call in Quarter 2 however as they have not been chosen yet, I have no further details as to their likely commencement and completion dates.

At present funding is in place for a number of previously funded Greenways and it is expected that the Maynooth to Athlone section of the Galway to Dublin Greenway will be completed in 2019.

The remaining €72,000 has been allocated to my Department under Subhead E2 for Departmental administration-related capital expenditure relating to the operations of the Tourism Divisions (e.g. repair and maintenance of office buildings; purchase of furniture, computer equipment or other office machinery/equipment; and routine office supplies).