Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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226. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way in which an association (details supplied) will distribute additional funding provided to grassroots football clubs. [15368/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Deputy will be aware that on 30 January, the then Government approved the allocation of additional funding of €2.9 million per annum to the organisation mentioned, for football development in the period 2020 to 2023. Together with the restoration of Sport Ireland programme funding of €2.9 million, this brings the total funding approved for the organisation to €5.8 million per annum up to 2023.

The organisation has committed to implementing certain priority recommendations on governance reform and Sport Ireland expects to be in a position to restore funding to the organisation when these commitments are verifiably honoured. The funding will be allocated to the organisation by Sport Ireland and the further distribution of the funding to its clubs will be a matter for the organisation itself.

The Deputy will also be aware that an additional funding package of up to €70 million was announced on 19 June to support the sport sector, which has been significantly impacted by Covid-19. This includes an amount of up to €40 million to support the three main field sports organisations, i.e. the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI.

The allocation of funding to the organisation mentioned by the Deputy and its affiliated clubs has not yet been determined. This additional funding will be invested through new grant schemes which are currently being developed. It is expected that the precise terms of each of the new grant schemes will be announced by Sport Ireland later this month.

Sport Ireland will announce an open invitation to applications from funded bodies for assistance under the grant schemes.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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227. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if final approval will be given to a grant for a stadium (details supplied) under the large scale sporting infrastructure scheme; if the matter will be given urgent priority in view of the amount of time that the applicant has waited since the application was made and the merits of the project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15371/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The National Sports Policy was published in 2018 and provided for a new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The aim of the fund is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports capital projects where the Exchequer investment is greater than the maximum amount available under the Sports Capital Programme.

The first call for applications under the LSSIF was confined to National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and Local Authorities. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) submitted an application for funding the stadium development project referred to by the Deputy. In January of this year, provisional allocations totalling €77.4m for 25 projects under Stream 2 (construction) of the LSSIF were announced. In view of the limited funding available, the project referred to by the Deputy did not score sufficiently highly to warrant a provisional allocation in this first set of allocations.

The evaluation procedures and guidelines for the LSSIF provide that once provisional allocations are announced, the projects being suggested for funding undergo a further process of due diligence. This process includes a further review of projects including economic appraisals and feasibility studies as appropriate to comply with the Public Spending Code and EU State Aid rules.

In view of the fact that the proposed development had received previous government support, it was agreed that the application in question should also be subject to the due diligence process and the question of funding could then be further considered. This process has been advancing in consultation with the FAI. On 7th May, the Department of Transport , Tourism and Sport wrote to the FAI to confirm that it was satisfied that the multi-criteria analysis was compliant with the Public Spending Code.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport subsequently wrote to the FAI on 15th June 2020 seeking further information in respect of the financial projections for the project. A response was received from the FAI on the 1st July and is currently being examined. A decision on any possible funding for the project is expected after this material has been fully reviewed.