Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 November 2023
84. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if additional funding will be provided to pay sports capital grant claims from sports clubs in County Kerry which have been informed that payments have ceased because the budget has been drawn down for 2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52855/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sports Capital and Equipment Programme, SCEP, is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. Over 13,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998 bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.15 billion. The Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising investment in disadvantaged areas.
The latest round of the SCEP (2023) closed for applications on Friday 8 September. A preliminary examination of the submitted applications demonstrates that the Programme has again generated a large number of applications, including one from the organisation to which the Deputy refers, and it is evident that the total number will exceed the previous record of 3,106 applications submitted under the last (2020) round.
Work is now underway on finalising the "Scoring Assessment and Assessment Manual" for the 2023 round and I hope to have this published shortly. Simultaneously, I also plan to publish the full list of all applications received by county including the relevant sport type for each application received. Once these documents are published, the detailed assessment work can commence. In this regard, it is planned to assess the "equipment-only" applications first and announce these grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on assessing the capital applications with the allocations likely to be announced later in 2024.
In relation to the management of existing grants and the processing of payment requests, the Department will continue to facilitate the payments of grant claims up to year-end.
