Warning to Kildare sports clubs to get their houses in order when applying for Capital Sports Grants
Kildare South TD Martin Heydon has issued a warning to sporting clubs around the county to get their house in order when it comes to applying for Sports Capital Grants this year after seeing a large chunk of the 2015 applications turned down for a variety of reasons.
The Fine Gael TD offered the advice to organisations who are now preparing their applications for the grants, saying that there are five main reasons that they can be turned down.
“In response to a recent parliamentary question, Minister of State with responsibility for Sport Patrick O’Donovan has advised me that in 2015, 566 applications were deemed invalid out of a total 1,592 applications received. The Department has introduced a series of measures this year to try to reduce the number of invalid applications for 2017. However it is important that clubs should be aware of the most common reason.
“The Minister has advised me that almost 90% of invalid applications in 2015 were based on one of 5 reasons set out below:
- Title/Access requirements not satisfied;
- Insufficient evidence of planning permission, planning application, or exemption from planning;
- Insufficient quotations/estimates submitted;
- Evidence of own funding not provided in prescribed format;
- Insufficient own funding.
Heydon explained that applications will not be considered if some of the criteria isn't met, and that the Department of Sport and Tourism have put these measures in place to ensure that the process of funding clubs is as smooth as possible.
“Once an application is deemed invalid for one of the above reasons, it will not be considered for funding despite any other merits so it is important that clubs and organisations ensure that title, planning and funding elements are in place.
“The Department have put a number of measures in place this year to assist clubs and this should mean that less applications are invalid. These measures include a series of regional meetings around the Country with department staff, include Dublin and Athlone venues.
“The 2017 Sports Capital Programme announced in mid December has a fund of €30m available and applications can be made up to February 24 at www.sportscapitalprogramme.ie. Clubs should register their interest online by February 10.”