Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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209. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which her Department expects to be in a position to provide capital funding for the various community and national sports projects in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2868/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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210. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when she expects to be in a position to allocate the major sports grants to the various applicants throughout Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2869/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 209 and 210 together.

The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. Over 13,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1 billion.

On 30 November 2020, Minister Martin and I announced that a new round of the Programme was opening with at least €40 million available to allocate. The original closing date for applications was 12 February 2021 but, in view of difficulties some applicants were encountering as a result of Covid restrictions, this deadline was extended until 1 March 2021. By this closing date, 3,106 applications had been submitted seeking over €200m in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.

The scoring system and assessment procedures were finalised and published prior to assessment work commencing and all applications were assessed in accordance with these procedures.

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 6 August 2021.

In relation to the remaining capital SCEP applications, the initial assessment of all applications was completed last week. In accordance with our objective of making the whole application process as user-friendly as possible, applicants who did not submit fully correct applications were given a two week period to submit corrected documentation. It should be noted that the number of applicants needing to avail of this “second chance” correcting facility was significant with a total of 706 applicants contacted in this regard. This represented 34% of the total capital applications. I am committed to having the final list of successful grants announced as soon as possible after the final date for receipt of corrected documentation.

In relation to the funding available to allocate, I am pleased that following completion of the 2022 budget discussions, an amount of €34.535m has been provided for the SCEP in 2022. This represents an increase of €6.6m on the 2021 allocation. In addition, the Revised Estimates for 2022 (REV 2022) provide for an amount of €6m to be carried forward from 2021 meaning that at least €40.5m will be available this year. This will cover all existing allocations under older rounds of the Programme plus significant new allocations which will be announced in the coming weeks. Furthermore, I am in discussions with my colleague Michael McGrath T.D. the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to maximising the total funding envelope available for the Programme and I expect to conclude that process shortly. 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 .

All unsuccessful applicants will be given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision and information in this regard will be issued when the grants are announced.