O’Donoghue rules out sports grant watchdog

SPORTS MINISTER John O’Donoghue has no plans to establish an independent body to monitor grant aid to sporting organisations.

Mr O’Donoghue used his ministerial discretion to justify the waiving of the rules to grant €300,000 to Killorglin Rowing Club, as highlighted in a recent Irish Examiner exposé.

“The current arrangements for administering the scheme, which have been applied by successive Governments over many years, have been extremely successful in ensuring the programme is responsive to local needs,” he told the Dáil yesterday.

When pressed yesterday by Labour Party sports spokesman Brian O’Shea on the issue of funding, Mr O’Donoghue said: “It is entirely appropriate that the Minister for Sport should be in a position to use this important instrument (sports capital programme) of sporting policy to achieve objectives such as supporting projects of particular local or regional significance.”

It was a matter of public record that he had made representations on behalf of the Killorglin rowing club, by writing two letters to then-Sports Minister Jim McDaid.

“I did what any deputy would do in the normal course of events. I made representations on behalf of my constituents. That is what I am elected to do and it is my constitutional function. If I did not make such representations, I would not be here this afternoon to reply to the deputy,” he said.

None of the projects which were awarded provisional grant allocations under the sports capital programme could access any of the allocated funding unless it had demonstrated full compliance with the terms and conditions as communicated to it by the department.