Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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124. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will finally ensure that a project (details supplied) is approved given that it was first initiated fifty years ago and that co-finance was and is available from a university with a student population approaching 20,000, as well as the indigenous population; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39454/24]

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 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. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published Evaluation Procedures and Guidelines with the first allocations announced in January 2020.

An application was received from Kildare County Council for design funding towards a new swimming pool in Maynooth with €1 million sought. The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and the swimming pool project in Maynooth did not score sufficiently highly to be awarded a grant.

Earlier this year, Minister Martin and I announced funding of up to €120 million under the new 2024 round of the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).

The application period for LSSIF 2024 closed on 1 July 2024. A total of 96 applications were submitted by the deadline by local authorities and/or National Governing Bodies of Sport and valid applications are now being assessed by my officials. No application was received in respect of funding for the Maynooth Swimming Pool Project.