Mulvey: Give sport a permanent political home

THE CHAIRMAN of the Irish Sports Council, Kieran Mulvey, has called on the incoming government to give sport a permanent departmental home, rather than moving it from station to station with each cabinet re-shuffle.

In the past, sport has been reduced to a junior cabinet posting while it has also been lumped in with Arts and recently, has shared its time with Culture and Tourism under the ministry of Mary Hanafin.

Mulvey is adamant that sport will benefit further from having a definite governmental headquarters. “We’ll have to see who’s the new administration of the country” he said at yesterday’s announcement of the ISC’s €25.6m funding package.

“At the moment, we’re looking at what the various parties are saying about sport and we’d be reasonably happy with what we’ve been seeing and hearing. I’d expect sport to assert itself no matter who’s in administration after the election.”

And even though capital funding was reduced by €23.5m in the December Budget, Mulvey insisted that there was no dilution of sport as a priority. Indeed he regarded yesterday’s announcement as “a good news story in the midst of a plethora of bad news”.

He was particularly emphatic in asserting the opportunities for employment within the capital funding scheme, while also expressing the importance of keeping facilities open 12 months a year to enable organisations outside those for which they might specifically have been provided to utilise them.

“The Sports Council doesn’t get involved in capital funding. That’s for departmental decision. We’re happy with what the funding is. The catch-all approach isn’t always the best one and the issue of capital funding is a thorny political issue.”

The near €26m in handouts is just a marginal reduction on last year despite the economic difficulties. The National Governing Bodies receive €12.1m, Local Sports Partnerships will get €5.7m and High Performance gets €7.8m for individual grants and the implementation of high performance plans.

Eight governing bodies are receiving increases on their 2010 allocation: cycling, boxing, gymnastics, sailing, tenpin bowling, surfing, triathlon and rowing. Athletics’ cut has been reduced slightly but is still just over €1m.

The individual high performance grants were put in three categories: Podium (€40,000), World Class (€20,000) and International (€6-12,000), with 22 athletes eight sports receiving the maximum grant. Cork man Robert Heffernan was the big winner as he was rewarded for his magnificent performances in finishing fourth in both the 20k and 50k disciplines of the European Championships last year.