Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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251. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she is seeking an additional sports capital allocation in the forthcoming Budget for 2022; if consideration is being given to carrying over the remaining funds available under the sports capital grant scheme to 2022 and combining this with possible additional provision to be provided in Budget 2022 for distribution amongst the current applicants under the scheme given the large number of applications and the risk that otherwise applicants will receive an allocation insufficient to undertake their proposed works; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48167/21]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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252. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of applications for sports capital grants remaining now that the allocations have been made for the equipment grants; the financial allocation available for this cohort; when allocations will be announced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48168/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 251 and 252 together.

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 1st March 2021. By the closing date, over 3,100 applications were submitted seeking over €200m in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.

The scoring system and assessment procedures were published earlier this year and all applications are being assessed accordingly. Approximately one thousand of the submitted applications were for 'equipment-only' projects. These applications were assessed first and grants with a total value of €16.6m were announced on the 6th August.

The remaining 2,000 approx. applications for capital works are now being assessed. Given the large number of applications received, this work is likely to take a number of months to complete with allocations expected to be announced before the end of this year. A decision on the total allocation amount will not be made until all applications have been assessed.

It is not possible at this stage to state what this level of funding will be as factors such as the level of invalid applications will be relevant. Furthermore, the level of carry-over from this year into 2022 will be dependent on the level of drawdown demands received in the Department before the end of this year. Every effort will be made to fund as many worthwhile projects as possible while providing a sufficient level of grant to ensure the projects are viable.