Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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16. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason that County Louth received the lowest level of funding in the country through the Sport Ireland Dormant Account Funding announced on 27 October 2022 despite the key recommendations in the Geiran Report including the need for greater levels of funding for sports clubs and organisations for Drogheda to address disadvantage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56924/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Grant allocations from Dormant Accounts to all Local Sports Partnerships (LSPs) in each county are based on competitive bid processes scored in accordance with clearly defined and publicly available award criteria.

For each of the eight Dormant Account funding streams available for application by Local Sports Partnerships this year, applications were invited from all 29 Local Sports Partnerships, all of which submitted applications. Sport Ireland carried out a detailed assessment of these, involving an evaluation based on a scoring matrix that considered the quality, content and context of the project proposal. Louth Local Sports Partnership applied for 4 streams of Dormant Accounts funding in 2022 and was successful in 3 out of 4 of its applications. The three successful measures concerned a €30,000 allocation to a Community Sports Hub, a €5,000 allocation for Volunteer Supports and €6,500 for a Get Girls Active programme.

The only application in which the Louth LSP was unsuccessful concerned its proposed Urban Outdoor Adventure initiative, for which it sought €45,000. In this particular competition, 13 LSPs applied, and Louth LSP did not receive a high enough score to receive funding for its initiative. The scoring system deployed in this context encompasses a wide range of factors that include the level of disadvantage in communities of the type identified in the Drogheda Implementation Plan, the quality of the project, its goals and capacity to deliver increased participation as well as value for money and the project's sustainability and capacity for growth in the future. Further details are available from Sport Ireland upon request.

Dormant Accounts measures will continue to be highly prominent in our efforts to secure improved sports participation in disadvantaged communities, in Drogheda and elsewhere, and I would encourage all Local Sports Partnerships to engage actively with Sport Ireland in the roll-out of next year's funding programmes which will again involve considerable opportunities for all LSPs.

Furthermore, my Department also administers the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) . The 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 Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising the investment in disadvantaged areas.

The final allocations under the latest round of the SCEP were announced in May of this year and the total allocation of over €166 million represented the highest level of allocation ever made under the SCEP. Included in this record level of allocations was over €4.3m for projects in Louth alone. I will announce the exact timing of a new round shortly but it is hoped to have it open for applications early in the new year .