CLARE Fine Gael TD Joe Carey has confirmed that €216,547 has been allocated to four Clare projects following the conclusion of the appeals process for the latest round of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme.
More than half the funding will go to two projects in Newmarket-on-Fergus where €80,837 has been allocated to the local GAA Club for the Cora Caitlin renovation project and a further €56,073 for an artificial playing surface at Newmarket on Fergus National School.
€50,122 will go to the Russell Cultural Centre for refurbishing the sports hall at Doolin Community Centre and €29,515 was allocated to Lifford/Oldtown soccer club in Ennis for the provision of a synthetic training area.
Explaining the rationale behind the latest round of funding, Deputy Carey said that following the allocation of €143 million to 1,865 projects last February, all unsuccessful applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision
“146 appeals were submitted by the April 4 deadline and 108 of them were successful and qualified for more than €6 million additional funding, including the projects in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Doolin and Ennis.
“The likelihood of increasing sport participation in the area and the funding already received by the club were the main considerations of the score obtained at assessment stage, which was the key to assessing the individual grant amount,” he explained.
“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. Over 13,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to more than €1.15 billion.
“The level of funding available to each county was determined by population and the number of applications submitted. Applications were assessed and grants awarded in accordance with the Programme’s scoring system which was published before assessment work started.
“Successful appellants will now receive a provisional grant offer and some administrative requirements must then be fulfilled before formal approval issues,” Deputy Carey added.
