Seven Major Sports Projects To Benefit From €5m Funding Allocation

Almost €5 million has been allocated for seven individual projects under the new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF), announced by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross and Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin.

The grants represent the successful Stream 1 proposals which are applications seeking funding towards the cost of developing projects to the point that an application for construction work can be submitted in the future.

Stream 2 applications related to applications for funding the construction of facilities and grants totalling €77.4 million to 25 individual projects were announced last Friday (10 January 2020).

The successful applicants were decided following a rigorous assessment process with the highest scoring applications receiving grant offers. All applications under the fund had to be supported by a National Governing Body for Sport (NGB) or a Local Authority. The priority given to projects by the relevant NGB(s) or local authority was one of the key determinants of the assessment score along with factors such as the likelihood of increasing sport participation, how the proposed project would improve high performance and whether the proposed development would benefit spectators.

Commenting on the announcement Minister Ross said: "We were delighted to announce significant funding for major sports facilities in recent days. It is well established that participation in sport plays a significant role in improving people's health and wellbeing. It is particularly important to get our young people involved in sports and to do so, we must have good quality, safe and attractive sports facilities. The grants we are announcing today in addition to the 25 grants announced on Friday last, will help deliver state-of the –art facilities across the country and across a variety of sports."

Minister Griffin said: "We know that sporting success at high-performance level has the ability to lift the spirits of entire communities. To achieve this high level success however, we need to invest in facilities across the country to nurture these talents. Enhanced investment in sports facilities has been a key policy objective of the Government and this commitment has been borne out by the recent allocations under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund but also through our continued investment in the Sports Capital Programme."

(MH/CM)