Mrs D Kelly asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline the money available for capital stadium development for football clubs.                     

Mr Poots: With permission, Mr Speaker, I will deal with questions 4, 16 and 20 together. The recently announced capital budget for sport is £31·2 million for 2008-09, £36·4 million for 2009-2010, and £44 million for 2010-11. Sport NI is responsible for the development of sport, including the distribution of funding, and is currently considering how those funds might be allocated throughout sport. As part of that process, Sport NI is working closely with sports’ governing bodies — including those from soccer, rugby and Gaelic games — on stadium-development needs. When that process is completed, Sport NI will take decisions about grants for stadium development, including maximum grants.

From its budget this year, Sport NI has introduced several capital-grant programmes — such as stadia safety, Gaelic-games modernisation and soccer-strategy programmes — that are designed to assist rugby, Gaelic games and soccer in developing their stadia.

Mrs D Kelly: I thank the Minister for his response. He referred to stadium safety, but there is a belief that there is a shortfall in the budget for stadium-safety work. Will the Minister outline the likely impact of health and safety rules on stadium capacity in Northern Ireland’s various sports venues?

Mr Poots: When the new rules are introduced, stadia will have to close if measures are not taken to improve them. Therefore, in the coming years, without significant upgrades, certain stadia will come under a lot of pressure. Money, which will, hopefully, offset some of those pressures, will go to various sports in order to enhance the stadia that currently exist.

Mr Burns: What measures has the Minister put in place to encourage grant uptake? Does the Minister have a plan to ensure that every penny of that money is allocated to sports clubs that need it, and what will he do with any money that is not distributed this year?

Mr Poots: Sport NI is responsible for the distribution of such funding, significant funds have already been distributed, and the IFA’s recent decision will ensure that that continues to be the case.