Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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366. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when the large-scale sport infrastructure fund will be reinstated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27002/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The National Sports Policy published in 2018 provided for the establishment of a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The National Development Plan has provided a capital allocation of at least €100m over the period to 2027 for the Fund. The aim of the fund is to provide support for larger sports facilities where the Exchequer investment is greater than the maximum amount (€300,000) available under the Sports Capital Programme (SCP).

Provisional grants totalling €82.5m were announced in January of this year. The evaluation procedures and guidelines for the LSSIF provide that once provisional allocations are announced, the successful projects will 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. This work is continuing and the priority in the short term is on advancing the projects allocated funding in January. While it is not proposed to open the fund for new applications at present, it is planned to review progress on existing grants in 2021 when the question of whether or not it would be appropriate to seek new applications will be considered.