Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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299. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the review of the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14893/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, including swimming pools, with at least €100 million being made available over the period to 2027.

The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 and, thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals. The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and it was not possible to provide all successful applicants the full amount sought.

While the priority in the short term is to advance all of the projects that were allocated funding, as it is now two years since the first allocations were made, and in view of the issues faced by grantees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects allocated grants. My Department has now met with all successful grantees and work is at an advanced stage in drafting the review. I expect this work to be finalised shortly.

Once that review is complete the scope for awarding any additional grants, adjusting the level  of existing grants and the timing of any new call for proposals will be considered.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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300. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the appeals process for the sports capital grant applications that were unsuccessful; if clubs will be directly corresponded with on this process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14981/22]

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 recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. 

The 2020 round of the Programme closed for applications on 1 March 2021.  By this date, 3,106 applications were submitted seeking over €200 million 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. All of the improvements which were introduced for recent rounds of the Programme to make the process as user-friendly as possible were maintained for this round. This included giving applicants a second chance to submit corrected documentation. The full scoring system and assessment procedures can be viewed on the sportscapitalprogramme.ie website.

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. The remaining capital applications were then assessed and 1,865 individual grant offers with a total value of over €143.8 million were announced on Friday 11 February 2022. 

In relation to unsuccessful applicants, my Department was in contact with relevant organisations earlier this month in relation to the appeals process. Appeals will be accepted if a mistake was made by the Department during the assessment process or if these organisations submit corrected documentation to validate their application.  Appeals will be accepted until Monday 4th April, 2022. Of the record €150 million made available for capital projects, €6 million has been kept in reserve for any successful appeals lodged by unsuccessful applicants. 

When the appeals process is complete, a full review of the 2020 round of the SCEP will be undertaken and any recommendations contained therein will be included in the terms and conditions of the next round.  The precise timing of this next round of the Programme will be announced once this review is complete.