Here is a selection of people who have begun interesting new roles with companies in Ireland.

The Irish Sports Council's budget has been decreased for 2012, with all sectors of sport suffering reductions except the High Performance budget, which supports Ireland's Olympic athletes, whose funding was left at €10.5m.

JOHN TREACY has warned high-performance programmes will have to be dismantled and jobs lost if the current government continues the trend of its predecessors by shaving the budget for sport.

A NEW national awards scheme honouring those who volunteer their time in sustaining and developing sport in Ireland got off the ground yesterday when Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue launched the official nomination form and guidelines for the ‘National Awards to Volunteers in Irish Sport’.