2026-03-03

133. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the details of the status of the delivery for use of the new ICT system to replace the existing sports capital programme grant management systems, OSCAR; the total spend on the project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16791/26]

Will the Minister of State give an update on the delivery of the new ICT system to replace the existing sports capital programme grant management system and outline the total spend on the project and where it is at?

I thank the Deputy. As she knows, my Department operates two sports capital funding programmes, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Both programmes are administered via an online customer portal, the online sports capital register, or OSCAR as it will be known to anyone who has made an application and been responsible in their club for engaging with the community sports facilities fund or the LSSIF over the past few years. It is also based on an internal administrative system, the CRM. In 2022, my Department identified the need to replace the existing OSCAR system. The Department approved Pobal, a State-sponsored agency, as the preferred provider to design and develop the new system. The project to replace OSCAR with a new, contemporary offering is tracking well with delivery and budgetary milestones and is due for delivery in the course of the first half of this year. The total expenditure on the project to date is €759,000. As we will all appreciate, the development of a modern, cloud-based grant management system to replace the existing OSCAR platform will facilitate greater streamlining of the sports capital grant processes, enhanced reporting and improved stakeholder communication and will also enable enhanced, data-driven decision-making. This in turn will ensure scalable and resilient service to applicants and funded organisations. As we would often say about an old car that has done a lot of service, it owes us nothing. The same could be said of the OSCAR system. It has served many rounds of funding and done so well but time has moved on. We are now moving to introduce a system that will be better able to meet the needs and adopt up-to-date technology to make sure the user experience is as good as it can be. We also want the system to have the capacity to be able to track applications and make sure they are clearly accounted for in an effective way within the Department as well.

It is now March. When I asked a question on this last June, the response I received was that we would have a fully developed online customer portal and an administrative case management system in March 2026. I appreciate that the Minister of State said it is coming very soon, but the urgency on this was for it to be up and running before the new round of the CSFF opens and for that to be able to facilitate an ease of application and an easy navigation portal for those using it. I have travelled around the country, as has the Minister of State, meeting sporting organisations and the one thing that comes up time and again is the arduous application process and the system being hard to navigate, particularly for voluntary-led organisations but is not just the voluntary organisations that are finding it difficult. Some of the bigger national governing bodies with experienced, qualified staff are also finding it difficult. That is the urgency on it. If it is ready this summer, that is well and good, but I am not the only person who is keen to see that come before the next round of funding opens.

I agree. It is certainly tracking to be in place to be able to run the new sports capital funding round on that system as well. That is certainly the position we want to be in. I have met very regularly with the team and we have been leading out on this to make sure the progress has been tracked and that there has been a prioritisation put on it within the Department. The work is progressing well. The team assures me we are on track to open for applications in late May and into June. We want to be in a position to be able to do it on this system. It will put us in a strong position with a modern, up-to-date system. I continue to liaise closely with the team to ensure that project is completed and is ready to be able to carry the new funding round.

That is brilliant. It is very welcome news. I appreciate that. If it is relatively on time and on budget, that is great news to all of the sporting organisations the length and breadth of the country that will use it. The only thing I ask is that there be a test run beforehand to ensure all of the bugs are ironed out so that it does not pose any difficulties to any applications that come through on it, but it is brilliant news.

There is a project management team in place and the different steps involved in the process include the transfer of data from the previous OSCAR system onto the new system. The testing of it will be part of the process too. A lot of work has gone into the initial part in terms of the building of it to be able to take on applications. I have been liaising with the team very closely on it. There is a lot of confidence in the team that we are on track to be able to run the new round on the new system.

We are ahead of time and those were very positive exchanges. I hope we will continue in this manner.