Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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395. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if funding will be provided for a project (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50446/21]

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 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, which include one submitted by Kerry County Council for the project the Deputy has referenced, are now being assessed. This work is ongoing with allocations for all successful applications expected to be announced in the coming months. 

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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396. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when the allocations given under the sports capital grant will be announced given the challenges faced by many sports clubs such as a club (details supplied) since the Covid-19 pandemic began; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50539/21]

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 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 1,000 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, including one from the club referenced by the Deputy, are now being assessed with allocations expected to be announced in the coming months. I understand the club in question has benefitted from substantial funding under the SCEP previously.

In relation to the challenges faced by the sport sector due to COVID-19, Minister Catherine Martin and I recently announced that additional current funding of up to €65 million will be available to support the sport sector this year.  Allied to the additional current expenditure of €26.3 million already provided to Sport Ireland, a total of €91.3 million will have been allocated in additional current funding to support the sport sector in 2021. In addition, the Government has allocated a further increase of €4.3m in current funding for Sport Ireland in Budget 2022 which will allow it to continue to support the sector next year as it recovers from the challenges of Covid-19.    

The Covid-19 funding package is intended to support National Governing Bodies of Sport and sports clubs arising from the significant impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the sports sector. The schemes are being run by Sport Ireland and National Governing Bodies have been invited to submit funding applications.  This package follows a total Covid-19 funding package of €88.5 million in current funding which was provided in 2020 to support the sport sector.