Rowing club grant - Independent body must oversee fund

By invoking the notion of “ministerial discretion” to justify the waiving of the rules to grant €300,000 to Killorglin Rowing Club, Sports Minister John O’Donoghue is being somewhat mischievous.

If there were no criteria for distributing sports capital grants, then Mr O'Donoghue just might be able to sustain such a proposition.

But there are such rules and his contention amounts almost to endowing a minister with the equivalent of a royal prerogative to override them when it is convenient.