CIT set for €9.2m grant as part of new sports infrastructure fund
Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) is set to get a €9.2m grant from the Department of Sport as part of the first set of allocations under a new sports infrastructure fund.
The fund, which was first announced as part of the National Development plan in 2018, sees €77.4m allocated to sporting facilities or projects across the country ahead of an impending general election.
Four of the recipient projects are Cork-based, with Cork Institute of Technology the recipient of the largest (and third-largest countrywide) pot - €9.225m for construction of a high-performance athletics indoor training facility as part of the institution’s community sport project.
That €9.2m represents just over 40% of the total funding required for the project - which will also see the Bishopstown facility’s existing outdoor track resurfaced - at an overall total of €22.9m.
The grant is the second substantial tranche of State funds to be given to CIT in less than four weeks, after the Department of Education awarded €18.75m to the institution for significant building upgrades in mid-December.
Elsewhere in Cork, grants were awarded for the centres of excellence for rugby and soccer in the county, at €1.5m and €2.5m respectively, while €0.6m was allocated to the National Rowing Centre at Ovens for the upgrade of the site’s water training facility and racing course.
Given the funding for the football centre of excellence was advocated for by the Football Association of Ireland, with whom the Department of Sport remains at contretemps, the Department said that the funding for the Glanmire centre of excellence will be withheld until all issues of financial governance at the FAI are resolved.
Both the FAI project and the rowing club upgrade were advocated for by Cork County Council, with the City Council endorsing both the CIT and IRFU grants. A Cork City Council spokesperson declared its “delight” at the successful applications of its endorsees, something they described as “another great boost in terms of development of sports infrastructure in the south of the country".
Some 34 applications were received for the construction and project-delivery stream of the infrastructure fund, with 25 recipients eventually approved.
Cork along with Galway and Dublin received, by some distance, the largest amount of funding. The Munster country accounted for 17.2%, or €13.4m, of all grants dispersed, versus 26.9% for Galway with €20.9m, and 26.5% in Dublin which received €20.5m.
The largest figure granted was €10m in two instances: the construction of a 12,000 capacity stadium and high-performance training centre at the Sportsground in Galway for Special Olympics Ireland and the IRFU, with the same amount allocated for the construction of a two-tier capacity grandstand as part of the redevelopment of the RDS main arena in south Dublin, a project budgeted overall at €46.6m.
Meanwhile, a number of signature GAA grounds around the country were in receipt of multi-million euro payouts.
Walsh Park in Waterford received €3.8m for the construction of new stands, St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge, Co Kildare, received €4.9m also for the building of a new stand together with upgrade works to the facility, and Navan’s Pairc Tailteann in Co Meath was the beneficiary of €6.3m in funding towards the long-touted overhaul of the county’s main stadium.
