Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The National Sports Policy, which was published in 2018, provided for the establishment of a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to local authorities and national governing bodies of sport. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published evaluation procedures and guidelines and the first allocations were announced in January 2020. Thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals. There are currently no LSSIF approved projects located in County Longford or County Westmeath. Details of all allocations are on the Department's website.

The first LSSIF allocations were announced just prior to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic obviously gave rise to financial challenges for all grantees with many of them having to reprioritise their own expenditure plans due to reductions in their income streams. In more recent times, the high level of construction inflation has also presented considerable challenges for grantees.

In light of these issues, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects allocated grants and meetings with all grantees have taken place. It is encouraging that, based on these discussions, a majority of the 33 projects should be in a position to draw down funding in the next 12 months. While this progress is very welcome, these discussions also confirmed that some projects in receipt of LSSIF grants may not proceed in the short to medium term.

Following engagement with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and in recognition of the challenges mentioned above, officials in my Department wrote to all LSSIF grantees inviting them to apply for additional support by 4 August. To be considered for additional funding, grantees were advised that the key elements of the project should remain as set out in the original application and that priority would be given to those who provide evidence-based documentation to support their application. I hope to be in a position to announce further allocations to grantees in due course to ensure that all existing LSSIF projects are advanced.

With regard to a possible new round of the LSSIF, I am determined to see continued investment in sports facilities in order to ensure we achieve our ambitious targets for sports participation across the country. Accordingly, I will continue to engage with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on the funding required to underpin any new round.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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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 investment in disadvantaged areas.

The latest round of the SCEP (2023) closed for applications on Friday 8 September. A preliminary examination of the submitted applications is now underway but it is clear that the Programme has again generated a very large number of applications and it is likely that the total number will exceed the previous record 3,106 applications submitted under the last (2020) round.

Work is now underway on finalising the "Scoring Assessment and Assessment Manual" for the 2023 round and I hope to have this published shortly. Simultaneously, I also plan to publish the full list of all applications received by county including the relevant sport type for each application received. Once these documents are published, the detailed assessment work can commence. In this regard, it is planned to assess the "equipment-only" applications first and announce 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.