Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I thank everyone who has been in touch. Most Deputies have been in touch about particular clubs in their areas. We will satisfy the demand under the community sports facilities fund, which is what we are now calling the sports capital programme. Most clubs will be very satisfied with that.

As for large-scale projects – and I will get the figures at some point for Deputy O’Sullivan - there is a mismatch between the demand and the funding available. The demand is €660 million. The funding available is approximately €120 million. We are going to have to examine that carefully. They are being assessed at the moment.

In relation to regional projects, some entities have applied for regional funding, which deals with larger grants. Some will not qualify for that under the independent assessment process in the Department. While the appeals mechanism is open to them, we cannot open up regional funding to every single club and association because that would take away the point of it being for larger facilities to serve bigger areas.

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