I thank the Deputy. As she knows, my Department operates two sports capital funding programmes, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Both programmes are administered via an online customer portal, the online sports capital register, or OSCAR as it will be known to anyone who has made an application and been responsible in their club for engaging with the community sports facilities fund or the LSSIF over the past few years. It is also based on an internal administrative system, the CRM. In 2022, my Department identified the need to replace the existing OSCAR system. The Department approved Pobal, a State-sponsored agency, as the preferred provider to design and develop the new system. The project to replace OSCAR with a new, contemporary offering is tracking well with delivery and budgetary milestones and is due for delivery in the course of the first half of this year. The total expenditure on the project to date is €759,000. As we will all appreciate, the development of a modern, cloud-based grant management system to replace the existing OSCAR platform will facilitate greater streamlining of the sports capital grant processes, enhanced reporting and improved stakeholder communication and will also enable enhanced, data-driven decision-making. This in turn will ensure scalable and resilient service to applicants and funded organisations. As we would often say about an old car that has done a lot of service, it owes us nothing. The same could be said of the OSCAR system. It has served many rounds of funding and done so well but time has moved on. We are now moving to introduce a system that will be better able to meet the needs and adopt up-to-date technology to make sure the user experience is as good as it can be. We also want the system to have the capacity to be able to track applications and make sure they are clearly accounted for in an effective way within the Department as well.
Sentiment score: 0.32
I agree. It is certainly tracking to be in place to be able to run the new sports capital funding round on that system as well. That is certainly the position we want to be in. I have met very regularly with the team and we have been leading out on this to make sure the progress has been tracked and that there has been a prioritisation put on it within the Department. The work is progressing well. The team assures me we are on track to open for applications in late May and into June. We want to be in a position to be able to do it on this system. It will put us in a strong position with a modern, up-to-date system. I continue to liaise closely with the team to ensure that project is completed and is ready to be able to carry the new funding round.
Sentiment score: 0.41
There is a project management team in place and the different steps involved in the process include the transfer of data from the previous OSCAR system onto the new system. The testing of it will be part of the process too. A lot of work has gone into the initial part in terms of the building of it to be able to take on applications. I have been liaising with the team very closely on it. There is a lot of confidence in the team that we are on track to be able to run the new round on the new system.
Sentiment score: 0.10
Over a quarter of a billion euro was allocated to 3,048 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, representing the largest-ever investment in sports facilities in communities across the country. The Deputy’s question referred to the Oscar Traynor centre, where €509,182 was allocated to the centre under the CSFF in the period in question. In the 2020 CSFF round, we allocated €23,563 for sporting equipment, including non-personal portable goalposts. My Department is awaiting further information from the organisation before payment can be made. Under the 2023 CSFF round, €485,619 was allocated towards an artificial playing surface, floodlight upgrading, natural playing surface works and ball stop netting. Formal approval to commence these works was granted in December 2025 but no payment requests have been received yet. All CSFF grantees must sign a declaration that from the date of the grant, they will not deny anybody access to any facility or part of a facility for which they received a grant, on the grounds of gender, civil status, family status, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, religious belief or membership of the Traveller or Roma community without just, reasonable and proper cause. The Government is focused on promoting life-long participation in physical activity and sport for all sectors of society and communities. We are committed to a Sport for All approach, aimed at ensuring all persons have the opportunity to partake equally in sport and physical activity regardless of age, social-economic status, disability, or membership of, for example, the LGBTI+ community, the Traveller community or other ethnic minorities. My Department routinely carries out compliance reviews and annual spot-checks on a proportion of grant-aided projects as allocations are drawn down and participation and inclusion aspects are an important feature of those reviews.
Sentiment score: 0.26
The understanding is the Oscar Traynor coach and development centre, owned by Bohemians FC, acquired a long-term lease hold on the facility from Dublin City Council. The use of public lands are ultimately a matter for the relevant local authority and not my Department. Access to the facility is now a matter for the FAI and as all NGBs are independent and autonomous bodies and, as such, are responsible for their own governance and operational matters, including the management and operation of its facilities, it is a matter for that organisation to ensure appropriate access. As I said, with the sports funding we provide, there is an onus on everyone to ensure people of all backgrounds, all ethnicities and minorities are included. As regards the checks we put in place, we monitor these and will certainly be doing so for this application and every other application as well.
Sentiment score: 0.33
As I said, my understanding is that a long-term leasehold on the facility was acquired from Dublin City Council. In the first instance, this is a matter between Dublin City Council and the organisation concerned. In relation to approving and granting funds, we check to make sure that applications meet the criteria and that the access conditions are fulfilled. We will continue to do that in relation to all applications. On the transaction and lease in question, that is a matter for the organisation and Dublin City Council.
Sentiment score: 0.16