Minister Joe O’Brien welcomes announcement of €120m Fund for Major Sports Infrastructure by Minister Martin
Applications open today until 1st July 2024 at 3pm
New requirement to ensure similar access for women and men to LSSIF-funded sports facilities
Today (26th April, 2024), Minister of State for Community Development, Charities and Integration, Joe O’Brien welcomes the announcement by Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media of funding of up to €120m under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF), which has opened for applications.
Assessment of applications, for funding of between €600,000 and €30m, will take into account population size, sustainability, reducing administrative overheads and ensuring that similar access is provided to accommodate access by men and women to LSSIF-funded facilities.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister Joe O’Brien said:
“I am delighted to see applications open for funding under the Large Scale Sport and Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). This funding will be a welcome boost to many facilities in local communities and will assist sports clubs with supporting their members’ activities. I am pleased to see the new requirement which will assist in improving equality of access within LSSIF-funded facilities. I would encourage all facilities who are seeking funding to check their eligibility under the fund and to apply where possible.”
Minister Catherine Martin said:
“It is vitally important that we continue to invest in sporting facilities so that people of all ages and abilities can benefit from their use. We need to maintain capital investment in Sport. I am pleased that following the confirmation of the revised capital allocations under the national Development Plan the Government is in a position to provide more funding assistance for the development of large scale sports projects. I encourage all eligible projects applicants with suitable projects to consider applying for this competitive process. New projects could be designed to increase participation in sport, to provide large venues or stadia or to boost high performance and new swimming pool projects will also be considered.”
The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 with €86.4 million awarded to 33 different projects. Additional funding of €37.6 million was allocated to 27 of these projects in December 2023, bringing the total awarded to date to Large Scale Sport Infrastructure funded projects to €124 million.
This new round of funding follows the publication earlier this month of the ‘Review of the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF)’ and the new ‘Similar Access Requirement’. The Review outlined the issues faced by LSSIF projects to date and provides recommendations in relation to a new round of LSSIF. Delivery of the first round of the LSSIF is beginning to accelerate and there will be a strong focus on accelerated deliverability of projects under this new round of funding.
The guide for applicants is available here.