LISTEN: Lessons to be learned after covid grants used to maintain profits, says minister

By Rebecca Black, PA

Northern Ireland’s communities minister has said lessons will be learned after it emerged that Covid relief grants underwrote profits for some sports clubs.

The Sports Sustainability Fund (SSF) was designed to help sports organisations to survive the financial implications of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 430 sports clubs received grants in the £23 million scheme.

However, an Audit Office report found that applicants’ bank balances and reserves were not taken into account, and in some cases, profits were underwritten by the grants.

Auditor General Kieran Donnelly’s report said that was “not an appropriate use of public spending”.

Mr Donnelly said while he appreciated the scheme had to be delivered in a “very short period of time and under considerable pressure”, he urged that lessons be learned by the Department for Communities and Sport NI.

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey was quizzed about the scheme during question time in the Stormont Assembly.

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan asked Ms Hargey whether she felt the scheme was an appropriate and prudent use of public money.

Ms Hargey said all the Covid financial assistance schemes were undertaken in a “really fluid situation and under extreme time pressures”.

“Of course there are lessons that can be learned from the development and delivery of Covid funding schemes across the board and that’s something that is already under way in terms of a review of those,” she told MLAs.

Responding to further questioning by SDLP MLA Sinead Bradley, Ms Hargey said she has recognised the need to make improvements.

“We were moving at pace and indeed I have recognised that, I know the Audit Office has also recognised that, that we were moving at pace in terms of how decisions were being taken so of course there are always lessons learned in all of these schemes,” she said.

“But I do believe, in terms of the administration of the scheme that we kept to the guidance that was paid out, and I know that that was confirmed by the (communities) committee at their meeting back in April.”