2026-01-20

130. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the total amount of both LSSIF and CSFF funding drawn down in 2025; the list of all groups that received funding, in tabular form; if, in light of the arduous grant applications process and difficulties organisations have found with the LSSIF-CSFF process, he has recognised this difficulty, resulting in future rounds being simplified; if not, if he has considered providing assistance for voluntary-led organisations that might not have the skill set to navigate through the existing difficult application process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4111/26]

I thank Deputy Byrne for the question. I know these are funds she has a strong interest in. As the Deputy knows, my Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Sporting organisations can apply directly for CSFF funding while applications to the LSSIF must be made through either a national governing body, NGB, of a sport or a local authority. The Department made a total of 2,500 CSFF payments to over 1,400 sporting organisations in 2025, with a total value of just over €71 million. Details of all CSFF payments made to clubs in 2025 are available on the Department's website. That is relevant to the Deputy's question. Payments to LSSIF grantees in 2025 totalled just under €25 million. Details of those payments are available on the Department's website. I will ask my Department to send the links directly to the Deputy. I am acutely aware of the need to assist all applicants, in particular first-time and rural organisations, in advance of the next funding round in terms of guidance on the scheme itself and on the application process. In this regard, I am currently inviting sporting organisations to information and consultation evenings on the CSFF. We held one of those in County Louth just before Christmas. We held another in Galway East and another will be held in Kilkenny this coming Thursday. The feedback from these information evenings is valuable to the Department to better understand the experiences, needs and challenges faced by clubs and other organisations. This feedback will be an important input to our preparations for the next round. My aim is to have as many eligible sporting bodies as possible in a position to apply so that the Government is in a position to support them in the important work they do at community and grassroots levels.

I am delighted for all the successful applicants and I know the funding will be put to good use. All of these grants are vital to our counties and local communities' sporting infrastructure. Many of our sporting bodies, from national governing bodies to local clubs, have put out reports and press statements on the need for new infrastructure and the upgrading of existing facilities. These funding streams are crucial to that. In the last round of the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, there were 96 applications, with just 35 being successful. We need a new focus on sport in this country and additional funding to be allocated. I am going to keep repeating that. Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made commitments in their manifestos to increase the betting tax from 2% to 3% and to use this funding to invest in sport, but this has not been done yet. That increase of 1% in the levy would have raised an additional €50 million in desperately needed funding for Irish sport. To harness and evolve various sports, the simple fact is we need more funding, but we also need application processes that are user friendly. The information and consultation evenings are welcome. I look forward to seeing more of them being rolled out.

Our objective is to try to make the application process for both the sports facilities fund and the large-scale infrastructure fund as accessible and workable for clubs as possible. Obviously, when it comes to the large-scale infrastructure fund, the grants are of a much more significant scale - into the millions - and there is therefore more involved in the application process. We take on board the views of local authorities and the national governing bodies in relation to the prioritisation of those. We have had two rounds since 2019 of the large-scale sport infrastructure fund. The fund was recommended as part of the national sports strategy. There had not been a fund to cater for projects of this scale before. It was a really important step to ensure that there was funding for projects of scale to be able to be supported by the Government. Obviously, the demand is larger than the supply. Under the national development plan, though, we have funding for another round over the course of this Government. We will be looking to ensure that we engage with sporting organisations, local authorities and national governing bodies in advance of that to make sure that the process is as practical as possible while being robust at the same time.

It is important to note that national governing bodies are finding difficulties with the application process. I have been around the country, as has the Minister of State, meeting these organisations. There is a general agreement any time we talk about the grant application processes that they are overly bureaucratic. It is all right for large organisations that have the funds to hire in companies to assist them with their applications, but it is still a drain on limited resources. Smaller organisations simply do not have that luxury. Could we bear that in mind going forward and, if a remedy is needed, do something about it?

It is something that we bore in mind. We are aiming at having a new round of the sports capital fund by early summer. We will certainly be taking on board the feedback we receive before then from sports clubs around the country and Deputies on trying to make sure that it is as accessible as possible. I know there have been challenges in the past. The smaller the organisation, the more challenging and daunting it can seem to apply. We do not want that to be the case. In terms of how we structure it, while we will have to have a robust and fair system, we also want to make sure it is an accessible system. That will be to the forefront of our minds in the final framing of the application process.