Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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19. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she plans to maintain the enhanced level of financial support for an organisation (details supplied) following their successful delivery of the memorandum of understanding; if she will consider allocating additional funding for academies and underage international teams, inclusive of girls and boys; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24225/24]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Government funding for the FAI - to which the question refers - is primarily aimed at supporting the delivery of programmes at local level.

Considerable additional financial support has been provided by the State for the development of football in Ireland, particularly through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government and the FAI. The MOU provided for a package of funding of €5.8 million per annum to the FAI for the 4-year period up to 2023 for football development.

My Department has very recently received proposals from the FAI regarding funding support beyond the period of the MOU and in relation to the development of academies. These are being examined by my officials in consultation with Sport Ireland and they will make recommendations to myself and Minister Catherine Martin in due course.

Investment in, and supports to, both grassroots clubs and national level clubs in the League of Ireland is important and our capital funding programmes are providing significant support on both fronts.

Under the 2020 round of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme alone over €25 million was provided to football clubs around the country.

Earlier this month Minister Martin and I announced a record amount of over €26 million in equipment grants under the latest round of the programme. These allocations are in response to equipment-only applications submitted by sporting organisations.

Allocations totalling over €4.376 million was allocated in equipment-only grants to 136 football applicants. These were primarily allocated directly to football clubs with three grants totalling over €830,000 also allocated to the FAI for regional and national projects.