Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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1087. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount of the budget allocation of his Department in 2019 that will be allocated to the local authority swimming pool programme. [13260/19]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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The Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme (LASPP) provides grant aid to local authorities towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. The budget allocation for 2019 in €4.1m. Along with €2,823,260 carried forward from 2018, this funding will be sufficient to meet all drawdown requests arising in the year. There are four swimming pool projects remaining in the LASPP, namely Castlebar, Lucan, Buncrana and Edenderry and the priority in 2019 is on progressing these projects.

In relation to the future funding of swimming pools and other larger projects, the National Development Plan confirmed the establishment of a new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) with at least €100m available over the coming years. The new scheme opened for applications on 19th November and the closing date for applications is the 17th April 2019. Full details of the scheme and application forms are available on my Department's website at . The aim of the fund is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects where the Exchequer investment would be greater than the maximum amount available under the SCP. Initially, the scheme has a particular focus on National Governing Bodies of Sport and Local Authorities. Swimming pool projects will be considered.