There are concerns over the geographic spread of sports grants as well as lack of grant funding for certain sports types.

The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme is the main vehicle for State support to develop sports facilities across the country. Over 13,000 projects received funding since 1998 to the tune of €1.1 billion.

Our investigation will take a deep dive into the data to find out if there are any discrepancies in the figures with certain constituencies receiving significantly more than others.

WHAT YOUR FUNDING SUPPORTS

Applications are determined on a points-based scoring system, with safeguards in place to ensure a fair and transparent assessment process. However, in addition to other concerns, there was controversy in 2018 over the number of grants dished out to fee-paying schools in a ministerial constituency.

A more detailed grading system was introduced in 2020 to grade applications more evenly on population and demand, while also limiting access for fee-paying schools.

Our reporters will to speak to sports clubs and representative groups to understand the importance of grants for clubs across the country and find out if the new grading system is working fairly in practice.

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You can contact us at [email protected] and find out how we work here. Our investigations are sourced from and crowdfunded by the public.