Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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428. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when the next round of the 2021 sports capital programme will be announced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51073/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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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 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 applications for capital works are now being assessed. This work is ongoing with allocations for all successful applications expected to be announced in the coming months. Once these allocations are finalised an announcement on the timing of the next round of the Programme will be made.