Written answers

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Capital Expenditure Programme

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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98. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when decisions will be made on applications for capital projects in County Kildare under Project Ireland 2040; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39640/19]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware, Project Ireland 2040 provides indicative allocations over the next ten years for a range of transport related projects and programmes.

As noted in Project Ireland 2040 individual projects and programmes remain subject to compliance with the Public Spending Code, including its requirements in relation to appraisal and Sanctioning Authority approval points.

Details regarding indicative allocations, current status and expected completion dates where applicable are on the Project Ireland 2040Tracker that is published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and available at the following link:

County Kildare road improvement projects identified in Project Ireland 2040 for implementation, subject to the necessary approvals, are the Athy Southern Distributor Road, the Sallins By-pass and the M7 Naas Newbridge Bypass upgrade. The M7 Naas Newbridge Bypass upgrade and the Sallins Bypass are already at construction.

In relation to Tourism, Fáilte Ireland is currently evaluating a total of 141 applications under Stage 2 of its Platforms for Growth tourism investment programme, the first funding call of which invited proposals for immersive heritage and cultural attractions. Fáilte Ireland is planning to notify applicants, including those from Co. Kildare, by November 2019.

While there are currently no outstanding applications for Greenways in Co. Kildare, funding of €1.7m was granted to Kildare County Council for work on the Grand Canal Greenway in June 2019.

In relation to Sports Capital Funding, the 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on Friday 19th October last. 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 approximately €7m in allocations to 170 projects were announced on the 17th January. 619 equipment only applications were assessed next and 466 allocations with a value of €9.8m were announced to these organisations in May. Work is now underway in assessing the remaining applications for capital works. It is likely to take a further number of weeks to have all applications assessed with allocations announced shortly after that.

With regard to larger projects, the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund opened for applications on 19th November 2018 and the closing date for receipt of applications was 17th April. 72 applications were received in total. Details of the scheme and all applications received have been published on the gov.ie website salong with the evaluation procedures and guidelines. Assessment of the applications received has commenced. In view of the detailed information contained in each application, I am advised that it will take a number of months to have all of them assessed.

Accordingly, I expect that it will be towards the end of this year before any allocations are announced.

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