Sports grants take 5% hit

SPECIAL OLYMPICS have been hit hardest with e343,919 cut from their 2009 funding but with total funding amounting to e11.47m, budgetary cuts fell well short of the feared 8% when Government grants to sports’ governing bodies were announced by the Irish Sports Council (ISC) yesterday.

In fact the e11.47m to 58 sports bodies represents a reduction of 5% on the equivalent figure for 2008. Thirty sports saw their grants maintained at 2008 levels while three received an increase and 25 were hit with a reduction.

The core grant for Special Olympics Ireland has been reduced by 10% but, according to the ISC, this was negotiated and agreed with Special Olympics Ireland in advance of the allocations being decided. At e2.5 million, the grant to Special Olympics still remains by far the single biggest core grant to any sports organisation in Ireland.

With the support for individual athletes yet to be announced under the Carding Scheme, the e11.47m announced yesterday supports the core activities of governing bodies covered including administration, employment of professional staff, coach development, hosting events and programmes aimed at increasing participation.

In addition, 25 sports were allocated grants totalling e1.53 million under the 2009 Women in Sport Programme, a specific initiative aimed at encouraging and increasing participation by women in sport; one discipline to benefit handsomely is badminton.

The Women in Sport Programme was introduced in 2005 and has proved extremely successful and popular with the sports bodies who responded by rolling out a number of innovative programmes to attract women of all ages into sport.

As expected, the Athletics Association of Ireland has been omitted from the list for the time being as they are currently in talks with the ISC in a bid to resolve some difficulties at administrative level.

Those would appear to centre around appointments made by the AAI but not yet approved by the ISC who will fund them but the fact that they will host the European cross-country championships next December will certainly entitle Athletics Ireland to more funding.

There were some surprises, particularly in boxing where the core allocation is down by a whopping e45,226 despite the profile earned through silver medallist Kenny Egan and bronze medallists Paddy Barnes and Darren Sutherland at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Basketball’s core allocation is unchanged but their allocation under the Women in Sport Programme is down e60,000.

Badminton’s core allocation is down e21,958 but their allocation under the Women in Sport Programme has been increased by e35,400.

Ossie Kilkenny, Chairman of the Irish Sports Council said the work of the Governing Bodies was essential to the sports sector.

“There is outstanding work being carried out by them all and we have sought to protect those sports that are most reliant on our funding,” he said. “We want to pay tribute to Minister Martin Cullen who has been strongly supportive of our work and he has ensured that we can continue investing in the sports of Ireland.”

John Treacy said e13m was a significant investment in these sports and pointed out that this is the first year since their establishment in 1999 that they had not been able to provide an increase in the NGB budget.

“However the sports organisations understand the financial situation and are committed to the continuing provision of excellent services to the sports community in 2009,” he said.