Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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634. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if final approval will be given to a grant for a project (details supplied) under the large scale sporting infrastructure scheme in line with the recommendation, by the former Minister of State, that the project would be fully funded following the result of an appeal that concluded in April 2020; if the matter will now be given urgent priority taking into consideration the amount of time that the applicant has waited since the application was made and the merits of the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19009/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects with €100m being made available over the period to 2027.

An application was received from Clare County Council in respect of the project referred to by the Deputy. All applications under the LSSIF were assessed in accordance with the published scoring criteria. The scores were awarded based on factors such as the priority given to the project by the relevant NGB and/or local authority; the level of funding being provided by the project sponsor and how the project was likely to increase participation. Following the conclusion of the assessment process, provisional allocations totalling €82.4m for 32 projects were announced last year. The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and the project referred to by the Deputy did not score sufficiently highly to be awarded a grant under this first set of allocations.

All unsuccessful applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt that an error was made in the assessment process. Six appeals were received including one in respect of the application referred to by the Deputy. All appeals have now been assessed by officials who were not involved in the initial assessment process and a final decision will be communicated shortly.

In addition, a review of progress on the existing LSSIF grants is now underway. As part of this work the Department will be examining, inter alia, progress on all projects awarded funding to date. The scope for awarding new grants to projects which missed out under the first set of allocations will also be considered as part of this review.