Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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44. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide a report in relation to the large-scale sports capital programme by the overall list of the grants that have been made available to successful applicants under this scheme, a list of the clubs that made valid appeals under the programme, the grant amounts awarded to clubs that successfully appealed her Department's decision not to award grants, a list of valid appeals under the programme which her Department has on hand for more than two years; when those clubs that have lodged valid appeals under the programme can expect a decision on their grant applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56504/22]

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, 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 projects that received provisional allocations and the amounts provisionally awarded to them are published on the Department's website at www.gov.ie/en/service/4113b3-large-scale-sport-infrastructure-fund-lssif/. The rules of the scheme, the assessment process and appeals process are also published on that page.

The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and it was not possible to allocate grants to many worthy projects. It was also not possible to provide all successful applicants the full amount sought.

While the priority in the short term is to advance 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 and meetings with all grantees have now taken place. It is encouraging that, based on these discussions with grantees, 22 of the 33 projects should be in a position to drawdown funding in 2023. Accordingly, I expect to see significant progress on many of the LSSIF projects in the short to medium term and there is unlikely to be any savings in the relevant subhead next year to allow a reallocation of funding.

In relation to appeals, all unsuccessful LSSIF applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt that an error was made in the assessment process. By the deadline, (14^thFebruary 2020), 6 appeals were received, consisting of five under Stream 1 (Design) and one under Stream 2 (Construction). The table below provides further detail of these appeals.

All appeals were assessed by officials who were not involved in the initial assessment process but no errors were discovered.