Donegal is once again one of the principal counties to benefit from the annual allocation of Lottery grants for sports facilities. A total of just under £40 million was announced yesterday by the Minister of Sport Jim McDaid under the Sports Capital Grants Programme, and of that, Donegal projects will receive funding of £2,529,000.

Only Dublin (£9,571,000), Cork (£3,756,000) and Kildare (£3,035,000) received higher allocations. The overall total represents a £4 million or 11 per cent increase in funding over last year, with 679 local, municipal and national projects throughout the country set to benefit.

Donegal was also one of the counties to receive a large amount of funding for projects in excess or equal to £100,000 - with 10 projects falling within that range. Following public advertisement of the programme, 1,467 applications were received for funding this year. Part of the application process is that projects have to provide at least 20 per cent of the cost from their own resources.

The programme has once again afforded special priority to the development of sports and recreational facilities in designated disadvantaged areas.