James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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235. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the recent round of sports capital fund applications; if clubs may expect feedback on technical errors arising; if so, if clubs will have the opportunity to correct same; when the successful applicants will be announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6101/19]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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The 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme opened for applications on Friday 7 September and the application period closed on Friday 19th October. By that deadline, a record 2,337 applications were submitted seeking a total of €162m in funding.

186 of these applications were for projects that were deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the programme that subsequently submitted corrected documents. These applications were assessed first and €7m in allocations to 170 projects were announced on the 17th January.

For the first time, applicants who have submitted incorrect documentation under this round will be given the opportunity to correct their application during the assessment period. While there will be no undue delay in completing the assessment process, in view of the opportunity to correct documentation, the record number of applications received and the detailed information contained in each application, it is likely to take a number of months to have all applications assessed. Accordingly, I expect that it will be at least the second quarter of this year before the full set of allocations under this current round of the programme are announced.