Relief as sport escapes worst of budget pain

THE majority of the country’s sporting fraternity was breathing a sigh of relief last night after escaping the worst of the budget’s cuts.

The entire sports budget for 2010 will be €115 million, which is a 9% drop on 2009. However, funding for the Irish Sports Council in 2010 will be €49.789m, which only represents a 4% reduction from last April’s emergency budget.

That in turn had represented an 11% drop from the 2008 figures, which various sporting bodies had argued was in itself a large enough cut for any sector to suffer.