Sports Funding

118. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the way in which he plans to clear the backlog in approved applications for the large-scale sport infrastructure fund when the scheme has only been given an allocation of €39 million for 2027. [73886/26]

I also extend my best wishes to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan; I wish him a speedy recovery. How does the Minister intend to clear the backlog in the approved applications for the large-scale sport infrastructure fund considering the abysmal allocation in the budget this year?

I thank Deputy Byrne for her question and I also thank her for her good wishes to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. The large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, was established under the national sports policy to provide Exchequer support for large-scale sports facility projects and to address what had been up to that point a significant gap in public funding of projects of scale. The total allocation made under the large-scale sport infrastructure fund in 2020, which was under the 2018 round of applications, and then again in 2024 for that year's round is in total now €297 million across 68 projects. There is currently no approval backlog under the large-scale infrastructure fund and no grantee is currently awaiting payment. A sum of €39 million has been allocated for the large-scale infrastructure fund for next year and it is anticipated that this will be sufficient to cover the drawdown demand in 2027 based on my Department's assessment of the current pipeline of projects. Under the LSSIF 2018, we saw €86.5 million awarded to 33 projects. Additional funding of €37.5 million was subsequently allocated to 27 of these projects in December 2023, bringing the total awarded under the LSSIF for 2018 to €124 million. Grants totalling €173 million, benefiting 35 individual projects, were allocated under the second round in 2024. No payments have yet been made under the 2024 round as projects progress through the approval gates required by the infrastructure guidelines published by the Department of public expenditure and reform. With regard to a future round of the large-scale infrastructure fund, I am committed to ensuring sustained investment in sports facilities to meet our ambitious goals for sports participation nationwide. The programme for Government commits to maintaining sports funding to get more people participating in all levels of sport. It is our objective to be in a position to run a new round in 2028.

The Government has to get real and acknowledge that at the rate it is going it will never clear the approved LSSIF applications. This year's budget is just shameful. The Minister of State talks about there being no backlog, yet the Department is not meeting the demand of the applications. Every sporting organisation in this country, including the FAI and the GAA, has report after report, many endorsed by the Government, such as the Swim Ireland report A Pool Within Reach, that details the real need for investment in large-scale sporting infrastructure in Ireland. We are way behind our peers in Europe when it comes to delivering this infrastructure. This Government cannot even acknowledge the shortfall in investment, and going by its budget 2027 allocation, will never address it. All we will see is endless announcements that do not transpire into anything. This scheme is too important to play politics with. Sports clubs right around this country, in every city, town, village and rural area, are being short-changed. That is the reality of the situation.

So far we have had funding and grants committed to 68 projects. From a Government point of view, we want to see those projects move forward. It is the role of either the national sporting bodies or the local authorities that have made those applications to move them forward. The officials in my Department are working with them to try to make sure that they are expedited and that they get into delivery. We want to see them delivered. We have provided so far the capital funding required to make sure that all projects are moving. As I said, no project is awaiting funding. We are working with all those in the most recent round to make sure that they move forward and get into funding. Looking across the country, we have seen many projects delivered that would not have been possible in the absence of the large-scale infrastructure fund, whether that is, for example, the Dundalk leisure centre in the Deputy's constituency, the St. Conleth's Park GAA facility in Kildare, the Charlesland athletics track, Munster Rugby Centre of Excellence or the Askeaton Pool and Leisure centre complex in Limerick. Many projects come through, and we want to see all of them work their way through the system and we want to fund them as required as they come forward.

I acknowledge that many projects have come through, and they are all very worthwhile and worthy projects, but some of the approved projects have been sitting there since 2018, with nine construction projects approved under the 2018 round yet to commence. The Minister of State stands here today talking to me about opening a new round in 2028. The Department has not cleared 2018, it cannot meet the demand of 2024 and we are supposed to believe this pie-in-the-sky new round of 2028. It is ludicrous. I think the Department is just burying its head in the sand when it comes to this. We need real investment. If we are serious about supporting sport, we need sporting infrastructure that caters for our sports, and we cannot do that without significant investment.

We are meeting the demand-----

It is €165 million. You are not.

-----and funding every project that has come forward.

You are not.

It is not the Government that is delivering the projects on the ground, though; it is mainly local authorities or national sporting bodies. We are working with them to press that they actually move on and deliver them. The projects the Government is moving forward and directly delivering include, for example, two projects on the national sports campus, the development of the new velodrome and badminton centre and the development of the new national cricket ground. Both projects are under way. We also want to see these large-scale infrastructure projects across the country actually progress. We have funded 68 of them. It is now up to those 68 different projects to get moving and to get into production. We want to see them in production. We will support them with the funding to move on. We are pressing them to get moving and to get into production. We look forward to undertaking a new round in 2028 for more projects to come forward but we expect all those that have been funded and awarded funding to move on and get into delivery. I think all of us want to see them delivered in our local communities.