Effects of slashed budgets will be felt for years to come
Last Wednesday was a case in point as word emerged from Kildare Street that the government’s fiscal scissors had snipped 2.9% from the sports budget for 2013 and not the 5.9% figure which had been expected.
Result, right? Hardly.
What is it with politicians that they just don’t get it? Still. Sports bodies were emitting warning signals as far back as three years ago, telling anyone who would listen that the budgets on which they were operating then were insufficient. The cuts have continued every year since. Staff have been stripped from the system, support structures have been disbanded but, hey, we’ve only lost another 2.9% this year.
“The boxers, paralympians, individual athletes, our national teams and local and county sportspeople lifted the nation’s spirits throughout the year,” said Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar two days ago.
“We are immensely grateful for that as a nation. Moreover, rising levels of participation in sport suggest that our policies are working and investment in sport is producing a real return. In recognition of this, I am reducing the planned cut in funding to the Sports Council from 5% to 2.9% for 2013.”
Yippee.
It is all too easy to argue, as some will, that the sector has actually done rather well under the circumstances — what with low income families having another €10 a month skinned from their pockets — but other interest groups kick up a fuss at least. Sport fights its case at other times of the year but was once again conspicuous by its absence when the latest, unpalatable facts and figures were being vomited onto the citizenry during the week.
Like a Victorian child, it cowers unseen and unheard around the corridors of power but it is more important now than ever that it’s advocates speak out on Budget day and hail its economic, social and health benefits. That is true now more than ever given the achievements logged this year because if sport cannot stand up for itself in 2012 then its prospects for 2013 are bleak indeed.
“My reaction to the Budget is that clearly the less than anticipated cut in sports council funding is very welcome and we would hope a recognition of the varied contribution sport makes to Irish society,” said Sarah O’Connor who, as chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sports, has been one of the few voices to continually fight the sector’s corner.
“2012 was a year in which sport really was front and centre due to the Euros, the Olympics and Paralympics. This may not be the case in 2013 yet the work both in terms of growing the participation base and preparing talented athletes for the world stage continues.
“Therefore, despite the very welcome reduced cut, funding is still down substantially since 2008. With further cuts earmarked for 2014, there remains a real need to look at other avenues of funding for sport particularly around incentivising private sector investment in sport.”
This is critical. The federation’s own report, issued last week, demonstrated a clear decline in the corporate sector’s sponsorship spend in recent years and the really worrying part is that the fall is likely to accelerate now that what was effectively our ‘home’ Olympics is behind us.
The federation has sounded this alarm before but don’t take their word for it — this sort of thing has happened in the past, back in 1988 for example, when Calgary played host to the Winter Games. Canadian businesses jumped on board as the five rings rolled through their back yard but lost interest in the years after and one of the consequences was that the nation’s developmental ski teams were sacrificed as governing bodies’ finances hit rock bottom.
Canadian skiers were top of the piste in the late ’80s. Their established stars and know-how kept them there for a few more seasons but then the descent gathered speed and the crash was just as spectacular as any we used to see on Ski Sunday. Between 1994 and 2007, the country failed to win a single men’s downhill event. Interestingly, there are signs that the same decline is happening all over again now, with Alpine Canada starting its second season without a development team to help youngsters bridge the gap between the North American and European circuits.
With companies such as Visa, Bell and Canada Post all ending sponsorship agreements since the Vancouver Games in 2010, the situation was looking particularly bleak until the Canadian Olympic Committee took everyone by surprise this week and announced new deals worth an extra $100m. That won’t happen here. Michael Noonan may have talked about the end being in sight for painful measures but, for sport, the hurt has only began.
Email: brendan.obrien@examiner.ie
Twitter: @Rackob
