Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Department currently operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) and the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). Both of these capital programmes are demand-driven.

The aim of the LSSIF is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, where the Exchequer investment would be greater than the maximum amount available, under the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP). The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to Local Authorities and National Governing Bodies of Sport. New swimming pool projects and the refurbishment of existing swimming pools were eligible to apply for LSSIF grant funding subject to published guidelines and regulations. The first LSSIF allocations were announced in January 2020 and thus far, approximately €124 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals including 8 swimming pool projects.

A new round of the LSSIF will open for applications in the coming weeks, with the dates, terms and conditions to be published on the Department’s website in the coming weeks. I would encourage all eligible projects to consider applying for this competitive application process when it opens in the coming weeks.