A TOTAL OF €12.6m of sports capital went to disadvantaged areas in 2012, it was announced today.
Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring, confirmed that €12.6 million of the €31 million allocated under the last round of the sports capital allocations went to 255 separate projects, which were all based in disadvantaged areas.
The money under the Sports Capital Programme was awarded to 648 projects at the end of 2012 in total.
The news shows a focus on increasing participation in sport in disadvantaged areas, the Minister said:
When I announced the last Sports Capital Programme I said it would have a particular focus on projects which increase active participation in sport, particularly in disadvantaged areas. The focus was therefore on draining pitches, installing floodlights, or improvements to sports halls and dressing rooms. The aim was to give people more opportunities to get active, and stay active.
He said he was delighted to see that so many clubs from disadvantaged areas qualified under the revised criteria. As well as the changes to the criteria, the minimum amount of matching funding which clubs and organisations needed to provide themselves in order to apply for the grant was reduced by half.
This meant that some groups only needed to raise a minimum of between 5 to 15 per cent, depending the type of group, to apply.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say