Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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333. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the infrastructure map that is being developed by Sport Ireland; if his Department will develop a fund or a grant heading to fill the gaps in sports infrastructure around the country, with an emphasis on areas of disadvantage, facility sharing and participation; and if this mapping exercise will incorporate or have the ability to utilise census data in order to assist with the identification of areas that have sports clubs that are oversubscribed. [32289/23]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to confirm to the Deputy that the National Digital Database of Sport and Recreation Amenities, currently being developed by Sport Ireland, is on track to be substantially completed by the end of this year. It is a major, multi-annual project involving the integration of multiple datasets from a wide variety of stakeholders that will, inter alia, increase our understanding of gaps or shortfalls in Ireland's sporting infrastructure. The system being developed will have the capability to perform demographic analyses of the type and for the purposes indicated by the Deputy.

In relation to addressing any identified gaps, my Department provides capital grant assistance for new sporting facilities through the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) and the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). It should be noted that both schemes already contain weighting provisions in their grant allocation criteria in favour of the attainment of such overall sports policy objectives as increased participation amongst the disadvantaged and greater facility sharing. All such provisions are kept under ongoing review and will be considered further in the light of emerging information from the digital database.