Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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90. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she intends to provide additional financial assistance to an organisation (detail supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3659/23]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has provided a significant level of support to the organisation to which the Deputy refers in recent years and continues to support the organisation through grant funding allocated by Sport Ireland and through my Department’s capital grant programmes.

The Memorandum of Understanding agreed between the Government and the organisation in question, in January 2020 enabled Sport Ireland to restore funding of €2.9 million per annum to the organisation and to provide additional annual funding of €2.9 million for football development up to and including 2023.

In recognition of the importance of the continued operation of the Aviva Stadium, the MOU also provided for a repayable grant to the organisation of €7.6338 million towards the licence fee payable by the organisation for the Aviva Stadium up to 2022.

It is important to remember that this agreement was reached at a point when there was a very real risk of the organisation becoming insolvent. The support provided ensured that this did not happen, and was conditional on the organisation implementing urgent and necessary reforms.

In addition to funding for football development, the organisation also received substantial allocations totalling €33.5 million from the Covid-19 support schemes provided by the Government since 2020.

In December 2022, a payment of €1.257 million was provided to the organisation under the Sport Energy Support Scheme to assist with rising energy costs. A further payment of €1.034 million was also approved under this scheme to assist with energy costs in respect of the Aviva Stadium.

Funding of €32,000 was also allocated to the organisation under the Women in Sport programme in each of the last two years.

Following a recent request from the CEO of the organisation, my officials are engaging with the organisation in relation to its current financial position and will examine any request for additional funding.

With regard to capital support, 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 €1.15 billion.

The Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising the investment in disadvantaged areas. The 2020 round of the SCEP closed for applications on Monday 1 March 2021 and by the deadline a record 3,106 applications were submitted. Following the conclusion of the appeals process, the final set of allocations were announced at the end of May last year. The total allocation of €166.6 million for the 2020 round represented the highest level of allocation ever made under the SCEP.

Soccer projects alone received over €25 million. Details of all allocations including those to soccer projects can be found at www.gov.ie/en/collection/471ed5-sports-capital-allocations/.

Following completion of the appeal process, my Department commenced a full review of all aspects of the 2020 round of the SCEP. A draft of the Review has now been complete and I expect to be in a position to publish it shortly. Any recommendations arising from the Review will be reflected in the next round. Furthermore, my officials are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to the next round of the SCEP. Once this process is concluded, I will announce the exact dates from which new applications will be accepted.

In addition to the SCEP, the National Sports Policy was published on 25 July 2018 and provided for a new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The aim of the fund is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports projects where the required Exchequer investment is greater than the maximum amount available under the SCEP. To date an amount of approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals including to a number of projects supported by the organisation referred to by the Deputy.

While the priority remains to advance all of the successful projects, in view of the issues faced by grantees as a result of Covid and construction inflation, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects allocated grants. My Department has met with all successful grantees and work is at an advanced stage in terms of completing the Review which is considering, inter alia, a possible new call for proposals. In this regard, I will continue to make the case for further funding for the LSSIF which will allow the consideration of a new call as well as advancing the current design projects to construction stage.