ISC chiefs digesting ‘painful’ cut recommendations

OFFICIALS at the Irish Sports Council (ISC) were last night digesting An Bord Snip’s “painful” recommendation that the body’s grant be shaved by €7.7 million, a figure which accounts for roughly 30% of its annual budget.

Such a reduction, were it to be approved by the government, would have huge ramifications for sport up and down the island, from athletes at Olympic level right down to grass roots programmes.

The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes has also suggested that the Horse and Greyhound Fund’s allocation be cut by €16.4m, which also amounts to just under a third of their current figure.

It is just over three months since the horse and greyhound industries reacted with relief to the news that the fund was not going to be adversely affected by the emergency budget, remaining at €55m.

The Horse and Greyhound Fund has been a source of some debate for a number of years but successive governments have recognised both industries’ importance to the economy given the fact that they employ well over 20,000 people.

The Horse and Greyhound Fund had already been cut by 9% in last October’s budget.

All told, An Bord Snip has called for a total cut of €104.8m from the Arts, Sports and Tourism sector with savings to be made from staff cuts – 170 has been suggested – as well as reductions in grant allocations.

“We will take it into account for what it is,” said Paul McDermott, spokesman for the ISC, “a recommendation, and we will deal with it in that light. We would presume that we will have an opportunity to argue our case on it. It is a big number in terms of our budget.

“It is very difficult to absorb that figure. It is a large amount. For every euro we spend on High Performance we spend another €3.5 on participation programmes and governing bodies. A reduction of €17.7m would be very painful.”

A record 34% was slashed from the overall sports budget last October and a further 4.4% in last April’s emergency budget and yesterday’s proposals have the potential to dilute the value of monies already spent in the past, according to McDermott.

“This is on top of what has been cut already. The Sports Capital fund has already been frozen. There is no new money for that programme and we have developed a lot of new capital infrastructure in recent years and we need programmes and people to use these. It needs to be remembered the dividend to society from sport.”

The total reduction in the sports budget from the high of €336m in 2008 to last April has already amounted to a massive 42% although that figure does include a one-off payment for the new Lansdowne Road last year.