Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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623. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if evaluation has commenced on sports capital grant applications for the next round of funding; the average time it will take to evaluate each application; and if she will set out the evaluation method. [18775/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country.

The 2020 round of the SCEP closed for applications on Monday 1^stMarch. By the closing date, 3,106 applications were submitted seeking over €200m in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.

The scoring system and assessment procedures are being finalised at present and will be published prior to the detailed assessment of individual applications commencing. Given the large number of applications received and the detailed information included in each application, this assessment process is likely to take a number of months. It is intended to assess applications for sports "equipment only" first with allocations announced during the summer. The assessment of the applications for capital works will then commence with allocations planned to be announced before the end of the year. As soon as the allocations are announced, all organisations will be informed of the outcome of the assessment of their application.