Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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In terms of my Department's responsibilities, 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 needs of disadvantaged areas and groups (such as people with disabilities) in the provision of sports facilities.

More information on the many items funded under the SCEP, which include modifications to sports facilities to improve access for people with disabilities, can be found in the latest Guide to Making an Application published on the Department’s website. It is a requirement of the SCEP that all projects must be accessible to persons with disabilities and capital projects must conform to the seven principles of universal design.

The 2023 round of the SCEP closed for applications on Friday 8 September. Work is now underway on finalising the "Scoring Assessment and Assessment Manual" for the 2023 round and I hope to have this published in the coming weeks. Once published, the detailed assessment work can commence. In this regard, it is planned to assess the "Equipment-only" applications first with a view to announcing these grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on the assessment of the capital applications with the allocations likely to be announced later in 2024. Once all allocations are finalised, an announcement will be made in relation to the next call for proposals.