Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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237. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the current position in regard to capital sports grants to include swimming pools; when an announcement will be made in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25461/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country.

The 2020 round of the SCEP closed for applications on Monday 1 March. By the closing date, 3,106 applications were submitted seeking over €200m in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.

The scoring system and assessment manual for the 2020 round has now been finalised and is available at www.sportscapitalprogramme.ie. Given the record number of applications and the detailed information contained in each application, the assessment process will take a number of months to complete. It is envisaged that allocations to applications for equipment- only will be made first during the Summer with allocations to other capital projects announced before the end of the year.

The Local Authority Swimming Pool Programme (LASPP) provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. To date 52 pools have been completed and three swimming pool projects (Lucan, Buncrana and Edenderry) remain in the programme.

Exchequer support for any new swimming pool projects is now being provided under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The LSSIF was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects including swimming pools with at least €100m being made available over the period to 2027. Provisional grants to 8 swimming pool projects under the LSSIF were awarded in January 2020. Those projects are now at various stages of a due diligence process. While it is not proposed to open the LSSIF for new applications at present, my Department is undertaking a review of the LSSIF Programme which is expected to be complete in the coming months. This review will consider, inter alia, progress on all existing grants and whether any additional grants should be awarded. The timing of any new call for proposals will also be considered and will be dependent also on the availability of additional funding.