ISC seek piece of lotto cake

ALL the political parties scrambling to be part of the next government are being asked to guarantee that a percentage of National Lottery funding will be set aside for the use of the Irish Sports Council (ISC).

As things stand, income from the lottery goes directly to the central exchequer. It is only then it is decided how much should be dispersed and to whom, all of which leaves the ISC at the mercy of various economic and political realities.

The ISC, responsible for the funding of National Governing Bodies and high performance athletes, received €47m this year, which is actually less than 20% of the €265 taken in from the Lotto.

The campaign to secure this more dependable avenue of finance is being directed by the Federation of Irish Sports (FIS), an umbrella organisation which has the authority to speak with one voice for over 60 governing bodies on a number of matters.

The FIS has previously waded into the political arena in the run-up to recent budgets in its attempts to stave off the worst of the cuts for the sports sector.

Those campaigns were backed by all of sports heavy hitters, including the GAA, IRFU, FAI and Olympic Council of Ireland, and benefited from the very public role played by men such as Páraic Duffy, Philip Browne, John Delaney and Pat Hickey.

The FIS has also canvassed all the main political parties to assess their plans and policies to harness sport’s impact on health and the economy, on their commitment to maintaining current levels of state funding and on the lottery issue.

According to Sarah O’Connor, the body’s chief executive, there is still a debate in Ireland as to whether sport should even be funded centrally — a discussion which has long been put to bed in most other European countries.

Sport’s importance and influence has all too often been overlooked in the political arena here, a fact highlighted again in recent weeks when it was relegated to a junior position in the cabinet after the reshuffle.

The wide-ranging campaign is hoping to secure sport’s future at the Cabinet table and incentivise private sector investment in the sector which, the FIS suggests, may also be required in order to complete the stalled National Sports Campus. Also on the agenda is the creation of a Sports Tourism/Event Strategy similar to that currently in operation in Denmark and which has enjoyed enormous success in attracting European and world sporting events.

The Scandinavian country designated 2010 as a year of sport and succeeded in attracting 52 world championships across the sporting spectrum, among them events in sailing, cycling, ice hockey and badminton.

That rate has continued with events such as the World Trampoline Championships, European Table Tennis Championships and World Archery Championships all secured over the course of the next four years. “I’m not sure how many years they have been doing it but it is a skill to be able to bring in events and it makes sense to set up a dedicated body to bring in those kind of events,” said O’Connor. “Denmark are at a stage now where they are successful with two out of every three bids they make.

“Their climate is no different than ours, it’s certainly no better, and as a country and a population it is very similar as well. We have often used it to compare and contrast our performances at Olympic Games. We’re never going to host an Olympic Games in Ireland but there is nothing to say that we can’t hold a lot of other high-profile events like a World University Games or something along those lines.”