Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS)

in plain words

ORIS is the Department of Rural and Community Development's outdoor recreation money: trails, loop walks, cycleways, blueways, mountain access routes, river and lake access, beach facilities, and the signage, bridges, boardwalks and trailhead works that go with them. It is €20 million for 2026 and 2027, at up to 90 per cent of cost, and in the last round it paid for Ballyseedy Wood, Brandon Hill, Djouce Mountain and the Cappoquin loop walk past the rowing club.

The club cannot apply. The outline is clear that eligible applicants are "Local authorities, local development companies and state bodies", and that they "must seek Expressions of Interest (EOI) from local community groups" to find projects. So the route is: the council or the local development company runs an expression-of-interest call, usually between June and September, the club answers it, the council chooses which few to put forward, and the Department decides the following spring. If the club's project is chosen, the council holds the grant and runs the job, and the club is usually asked to find the 10 per cent.

The second thing to know is what ORIS will not touch. The outline says outdoor recreation "does not include activities that take place outdoors on confined courses or pitches (such as golf, football, Pétanque and show-jumping)", and the ineligible list names "Sports grounds, traditional playgrounds and Multi-Use Gaming Areas" and "Walking or running tracks located in a confined space, e.g. around sports pitches or playgrounds, or within other sports grounds". A walking track around the club's pitches is out twice. That project belongs with the Healthy Ireland walking track grants.

What does fit is a club helping its community get a public trail. Leitrim extended a trail to Cloone GAA park. Limerick is preparing a walking trail between the community hall and the soccer pitch in Templeglantine. Kilmacow's loop walk and footbridge got €200,000. Vartry Anglers got €40,000 for a wheelchair-accessible lakeshore trail. The common thread: outside the town, open to everyone free of charge, built to Sport Ireland trail standards, and led by the council with the club as the local energy behind it.

the money

Measure 1, small scale

Up to €40,000. Six per council, three per development company

Measure 2, medium

Up to €200,000. Three per council, one per development company

Measure 3, large

Up to €500,000. One per council. Councils and state bodies only

Project development measure

Design, screening, planning and procurement preparation for a future round. Up to €100,000 combined per council, €70,000 per development company

Those are the 2026/27 outline figures. Some council pages still show older ones, such as €50,000 for the project development measure; the outline governs.

Up to 90 per cent, with "a minimum 10% cash match". The outline allows the 10 per cent to come from "the successful applicant and/or the community group and/or philanthropic contributions", which in practice means the club is asked. It cannot be other state funding, and "Contributions in Kind is not eligible as match funding", so volunteer labour does not count.

Costs count only when "Incurred after project approval by DRCDG and within the project delivery period": 18 months for Measure 1 and the development measure, 24 months for Measures 2 and 3. Nothing spent before the Department's approval is eligible, and retrospective costs are on the ineligible list by name.

What counts as own-funding evidence

• Cash from the club, raised or in reserves
• A philanthropic contribution
• The council's or development company's own cash

What does not

• Any other state funding
• Volunteer labour or donated materials
• Money spent before the Department's approval

The infrastructure "should be available free of charge to the public". Signage is bilingual with Irish first, or Irish only. Sport Ireland trail inspection after completion can be an eligible cost, and a registered trail joins the Sport Ireland trail insurance policy, which is worth more to a club than it sounds.

tenure and title

Landowner consent for every parcel the route crosses is needed before the application, and Coillte or National Parks and Wildlife Service consent where it is their land. A 15-year lease is required for large capital works on buildings or lands the council does not own, though trails themselves are excepted. If the loop crosses three farmers' ditches, three signed consents go in with the council's application.

Planning, in the outline's words: "planning permission (if required) must be obtained in advance of submitting the application. If the project has not yet secured planning permission, the submission of an application should be postponed." Carlow asks for the grant of permission or a Section 5 declaration with the expression of interest itself. Where there is a special area of conservation nearby, the appropriate assessment screening has to be done first too. The project development measure exists for exactly this: the council can fund the design, screening and planning now so the build is ready for the next round.

quotes and pricing

At application

The council's application carries a costed proposal, so the club's expression of interest needs a credible estimate per element: surfacing per metre, boardwalk, bridge, signage, trailhead furniture. Sport Ireland trail inspection extracts or dated photographs are used to justify repair work. A quote request from this site, sent before the council's window, is what turns an idea into something the council officer can rank.

At formal approval

The council procures. Written quotes below the thresholds, eTenders above them: €50,000 for goods and services and €200,000 for works, excluding VAT. The club is not the contracting party, but it is the one on the ground, and the officer will lean on it for the specification.

How many quotes the rules want

Goods and services under €50,000

Written quotes, procured by the council

Goods and services €50,000 and over

eTenders

Works under €200,000

Written quotes, procured by the council

Works €200,000 and over

eTenders

From the outline's procurement section. The grantee is the council or development company, so these are its obligations, carried out with the club.

the process, start to finish

1. 01

   Check the project against the exclusions

   On or around pitches, inside a sports ground, a MUGA, a playground, a standalone outdoor gym, within a town park or village street network, inside the five city boundaries: all out. A public trail, loop, river or lake access in the countryside, or a link from the village to one: in.

   Now
2. 02

   Ring the council

   The rural recreation officer, outdoor recreation officer or community department. The biodiversity officer has to be engaged before any application, and the county outdoor recreation committee is consulted. The council has to want the project.

   Now, for 2028
3. 03

   Use the development measure if planning is not done

   Ask the council to put the design, screening and planning application into the project development measure. Approval there does not guarantee the build, but it is how a club idea becomes shovel-ready.

   This round or next
4. 04

   Get consents and planning

   Every landowner. Coillte or the Parks and Wildlife Service where relevant. Planning permission or a Section 5 declaration. Appropriate assessment screening near a protected site.

   Before the window
5. 05

   Answer the expression-of-interest call

   In 2026 the windows ran from 13 July in Waterford to 25 September in Carlow, mostly by emailed form. Costed, with the consents, the planning, the 10 per cent identified, insurance at the council's level, and the fit with the county outdoor recreation strategy.

   June to September
6. 06

   The council shortlists and applies

   A council can send six Measure 1, three Measure 2 and one Measure 3 project. Everything it did not pick is listed to the Department anyway. Measure 1 and development measure applications by late September, Measures 2 and 3 by 15 December.

   Autumn
7. 07

   Wait

   Measure 1 and development measure decisions in the first quarter, Measures 2 and 3 in the second. Unsuccessful projects can be resubmitted next time after a conversation with the ORIS team.

   Spring
8. 08

   Build through the council

   Council procures and holds the grant. 18 or 24 months. Trail built to Sport Ireland criteria, bilingual signage, inspected and registered.

   After approval

where clubs go wrong

• Reading 15 December as a club deadline. It is the date the council sends Measures 2 and 3 to the Department. The club's window was the summer.
• Proposing the walking track around the pitch. Excluded by name, twice. It is a Healthy Ireland walking track grant, not an ORIS project.
• Applying directly to the Department. Only councils, development companies and state bodies can, and private or trading bodies are barred.
• Starting the path before approval. Retrospective costs are ineligible, and approval comes the spring after the window.
• Counting volunteer labour as the 10 per cent. In-kind is not match under ORIS.
• Arriving at the window without planning. The outline says postpone; Carlow will not take the expression of interest without it.
• Routing through a town park or along a village street. Both are on the ineligible list; the eligible version links the village to the countryside.

tips that earn marks

• Make the club the local organiser, not the applicant. The councils that fund the most trails are the ones with a community group doing the landowner conversations for them.
• Lead with the link. A trail from the village to the club's field, past the river, is the outline's own idea of a good project; a trail that stays inside the field is not.
• Ask for the development measure first. Design, screening and planning money this round makes the build an easy pick next round.
• Build it to the Sport Ireland trail criteria and register it. The inspection is an eligible cost and the trail insurance policy follows.
• Read the county outdoor recreation strategy. Waterford's runs 2026 to 2030 and Carlow's 2025 to 2030, and the expression of interest asks how the project fits.
• Talk to the development company as well as the council. Kilkenny LEADER Partnership and South Kerry Development Partnership both had Measure 1 loop walks funded in the last round, and a development company can carry three of them.

official links and forms