An additional €6.14m has been allocated to 108 different applicants following the conclusion of the appeals process for the 2020 round of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme.

A record €143.86m was allocated to 1,865 different projects in February following the conclusion of the assessment process.

All unsuccessful applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision including a final opportunity to submit corrected documentation to validate their application. 146 appeals were submitted by the deadline with most having corrected technical details in their application in order to make them eligible.

“The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme is an essential vehicle for providing suitable sports facilities around the country,” said Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin.

“The grants which we have approved today are the final set of capital allocations under the 2020 round of the Programme which resulted in a record €150 million allocated to almost 2,000 different projects.”

“To achieve our aims of having as many people participate in sport as possible, we need the required pitches, dressing rooms, floodlights and other facilities and the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme is essential in delivering these.”

“I have seen first hand the huge difference that the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme has made throughout the country,” added Minister of State for Sport and the Gaeltacht, Jack Chambers.

“It is one of the highlights of my job to meet the volunteers such as those behind the clubs and groups receiving grants today and see the real improvements the grants make to their organisations.”

“I am delighted that we allocated the highest level of funding ever under the Programme and I will continue to make the case for further enhanced investment in Irish sport in the years ahead.”

The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme 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.

Under this latest round, 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 were finalised and published prior to assessment work commencing and all applications were assessed in accordance with these procedures.

Next week on Sport for Business we will have an analysis of the full funding round with our partners at 2Into3 who played a part in securing and advising on a number of the wins.

Approximately one thousand of the submitted applications were for ‘equipment-only’ projects. These applications were assessed first and grants with a total value of €16.6m were announced on 6 August 2021. The remaining capital applications were then assessed and 1,865 individual grant offers with a total value of over €143.8 million were announced on 11 February 2022. This represented the highest level of allocation ever made under the SCEP.

A full review of the 2020 round will now be undertaken and recommendations arising will be reflected in the terms and conditions of the next round. The precise timing of this next round of the Programme will be announced once this review is complete.

 

 

Sport for Business Partners