€750,000 boost for athletics

THE wholesale changes made in the last year by the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) were rewarded yesterday with the Irish Sports Council’s decision to increase the body’s core grant for 2006 by over €250,000.

The Strategic Plan for athletics, masterminded largely by business transformer Gary Owens, has left the organisation and the sport in far better shape to face the future.

Said CEO Brendan Hackett on the €750,000 AAI grant: “It reflects the changes that have occurred in the last six months.

“There were a number of associations involved in athletics and now they’ve all come together. Recently the Irish Schools and Irish Universities Associations have become integrated into the association so I think the money reflects that.”

Yesterday’s allocation - the largest ever from the council to the AAI under core funding - also means that the athletics body will now be able to continue with the modernisation of its management structure.

This weekend the body will begin advertising for a director of coaching. A development officer is also planned, as are regional development officers further down the line.

Hackett is certain that the recent changes are evidence that the internal bickering and confusion over the direction athletics in this country was taking is finally a thing of the past.

“I think people now see a vision. The professional people will now be able to go out and put a lot of these programmes in place, which may have been difficult for volunteers in the past.”

Irish cricket was another big winner from yesterday’s announcement.

With the national team qualifying for its first ever World Cup in 2007, an additional €66,649 has been allocated to the Irish Cricket Union, bringing total funding to €217,878 which, it is hoped, will allow the Irish team engage fully in their preparations for the World Cup in the West Indies and to support the team at next month’s Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

Basketball Ireland will receive over €500,000 from the council in 2006 to support initiatives to increase participation in the sport at grassroots level.

Swim Ireland has also received extra funding to add to their staff, particularly in view of the fact that they are appointing a director of education in the early part of the year.

In total, 57 sports will receive a total of €7.63 million, with two grants outstanding to the Golfing Union of Ireland and the Irish Clay Pigeon Shooting Association, once various criteria are satisfied.

In addition to yesterday’s announcement, a package of high performance supports will be announced in early February while governing bodies will also receive a total of €2.5m under the Women In Sport initiative. Yesterday’s announcement did not include the funding of the GAA, FAI and IRFU.