Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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593. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide an update on his engagement with an organisation (details supplied) on the delivery of the new stadium in Dundalk and the plans for LSSIF funding to facilitate this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47684/25]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the Community Sports Facilities Fund (the CSFF, formerly the Sports Capital and Equipment Fund) and the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).

Over a quarter of a billion euro was allocated to 3,048 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the CSFF, representing the largest-ever investment in sports facilities in communities across Ireland.

The LSSIF was established to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, typically those requiring investments greater than the maximum available under the CSFF.

The GAA submitted an application for funding support to a number of projects, including the Louth GAA stadium development, under LSSIF 2024. However, due to the unprecedented scale of funding demand, a wide range of valid applications did not receive an allocation under this second round of the LSSIF, including the Louth GAA application referred to in the question.

Under the 2024 LSSIF round, grants totalling €173 million, benefiting 35 individual projects, were announced on 4 November 2024. The cumulative investment allocated under the LSSIF since 2020 now reaches €297 million.

My current focus is on ensuring project delivery under the first two rounds of the LSSIF, 2018 and 2024, and this process will inform any decisions regarding the timing of a future round. The timing will also be considered in the context of determining the detailed spending allocations within my Department under the National Development Plan as recently agreed by Government.