Feighan welcomes new round of Large-Scale Sports Infrastructure Funding

Catherine Martin T.D., Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and Thomas Byrne T.D., Minister of State for Sport, Physical Education and the Gaeltacht, have announced funding of up to €120m under the Large-Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF), which opens for applications until July 1 at 3pm. 

Assessment of applications for funding of between €600,000 and €30m will take into account population size and sustainability, reducing administrative overheads and ensuring that similar access is provided to accommodate access by men and women to LSSIF-funded facilities.

Locally, Frank Feighan TD has warmly welcomed the announcement. He hopes the funding presents opportunities for major sporting organisations, including local authorities.

“I know that Ministers Martin and Byrne are determined to support good projects that will have an impact, encourage more young people to participate in sport and perhaps address the regional imbalance whereby governments strive to improve our offering in terms of venues and facilities that will attract sports people from surrounding counties and the local region in a centre of excellence,” Deputy Feighan said.

Minister Catherine Martin added that maintaining capital investment in Sport is needed and encouraged eligible projects to consider applying for the 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,” she said.

Minister Thomas Byrne said: ”I am delighted to welcome the opening of a new round of applications under the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund. The implementation of the new Similar Access Requirement will also ensure that women and men enjoy similar access to all sports facilities which are publicly funded.” 

The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020, and €86.4 million was 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 infrastructure 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 provided recommendations for a new round of LSSIF. Delivery of the first round of LSSIF is beginning to accelerate, and there will be a strong focus on accelerating project deliverability under this new round of funding.