Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of sports capital grants and LSSIF projects that have been drawn down to date; the number of projects still waiting to drawdown the funding; if his Department has a tracking system in place to follow drawdowns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63258/25]

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

The last three rounds of the CSFF in 2018, 2020 and 2023 resulted in total allocations of €501,563,585 to 7,579 organisations. Of these, 3,837 grantees or just over 50% of the total, have drawn down over 90% of the their respective allocations. A further 759 grantees have partially drawn down their allocations and 2,983 projects have yet to draw down any of their allocations. The majority of grants not yet drawn down relate to the 2023 round for which allocations were announced in September 2024. There are also a smaller number of allocations yet to be drawn down from rounds prior to 2018 and my Department is undertaking an assessment of those outstanding allocations

The first allocations under LSSIF 2018 were announced in January 2020 with €86.4 million awarded to 33 different projects. Additional funding of €37.6 million was allocated to 27 of these projects in December 2023, bringing the total awarded under LSSIF 2018 to €124 million. To date €41.676 million has been drawn down from LSSIF 2018, and nine facilities that received an LSSIF allocation under this round are now open to the public.

Grants totalling €173 million, benefiting 35 individual projects were allocated under the second round of the LSSIF in November 2024. These projects are now stepping through the various gateways provided for under the Infrastructure Guidelines.

My Department engages as necessary with grantees at the various stages of the allocation drawdown process to ensure that the funds allocated are drawn down as early as possible.