The projects receiving allocations today were recommended for funding by either the relevant National Governing Body or Local Authority. To be considered of regional importance the project must serve a large population and/or provide facilities that will assist athletes to train or compete at the highest level.

Commenting on the announcement Minister Ross said: “I am delighted to announce a further €2.580 million in funding for sports projects. This funding is in addition to the €37m million allocations for local projects that were announced last week. All of the projects receiving allocations today will play an important role in supporting the objectives of our National Sports Policy and our wish to see every citizen engaging regularly in some form of sport and physical activity”.

Minister Griffin said: “This is further good news for Irish sport. The benefits of sport and physical activity are clear and the availability of quality sports facilities is key to encouraging more active participation for all. The Government is determined to increase investment in sports projects in the years ahead and will continue to work with all stakeholders to improve facilities for all sports in Ireland.”

While today’s announcement relates to Regional sports projects, work is also advancing on the assessment of applications under the Government’s new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund with the first grant announcements expected in the near future.

Full details of all of today’s allocations are attached and are also published on the Department’s website 

Additional Information

The Sports Capital Programme is the primary means of providing Government funding to sport and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. It operated on an annual basis up to and including 2008. There were also Programmes in 2012, 2014 and 2015, 2017 and 2018.

More than 10,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to approximately €1 billion. The programme has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in virtually every village, town and city in the country. The facilities that have been funded range from sports equipment for the smallest clubs to national centres of sporting excellence.

The full scoring system was published in advance of the assessment work commencing. The likelihood of increasing sport participation, the level of disadvantage in the area and the funding received by the applicant previously were the main considerations of the score obtained at assessment stage. The score obtained at assessment stage was the key determinant of the individual grant amount.

A review of all aspects of the 2018 round of the programme will now be undertaken and it is expected that a new round will open for applications in the coming months.

The National Sports Policy was published on 25 July 2018 and provided for a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The aim of the fund is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects. These would be projects where the Exchequer investment would be greater than the maximum amount available under the Sports Capital Programme (SCP). The Government has provided a capital allocation of at least €100m over the period 2018 to 2027 for the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund. 72 applications have been made for funding under the fund. Details of all applications have been published on the Department's website along with the evaluation procedures and guidelines. Assessment work is continuing in the Department and it is expected that allocations will be announced in the near future.