Blow for HSI as ISC cut funding 7%

HORSE Sport Ireland (HSI) has suffered a 7% cut in its high performance funding from the Irish Sports Council as a result of the failure to qualify a show jumping team for the Olympics.

The ISC allocation of €500,000 for 2012 is down from €540,000 this year and €600,000 in 2010.

It comes alongside a cut of 5% in Department of Agriculture support, down from €1,285,000 to €1,220,000 in 2012.

Despite the reduction, the Sports Council endorsed the work of HSI.

“The money has to be allocated to the sports likely to have the biggest impact and, given the fact no show jumping team has qualified for the Olympics, the money will be spent elsewhere,” said ISC spokesperson, Paul McDermott.

“There is a lot of competition for funding and many other sports, such as sailing, swimming, boxing andathletics, have shown tremendous advancement in the four years since the last Olympics.

“However, the HSI allocation remains substantial, which reflects the fact there could be a strong equestrian representation in London across other disciplines, while the nations cup series remains a target and the performance of junior and youngriders is strong and continues to merit support,” he said.

“Overall, the Sports Council is happy that Horse Sport Ireland is fulfilling its mandate and it has achieved a lot of good things,” said McDermott, who explained that the Sports Council suffered a 5% cut overall in the money it disperses, but chose not to reflect this in its total high performance budget across all sports.

While Ireland did not qualify a team for the Olympics, Denis Lynch and Billy Twomey are fighting to earnIreland two individual places.

In addition, eventing rules permit individuals to qualify as a team and there is cause for optimism, while there may also be Irish representation in dressage and para-equestrian.

Nevertheless, HSI chief executive Damian McDonald acknowledged in a statement that the failure to line out a show jumping team was the mainreason for the cut in high performance funding.

“The Department of Agriculture reduction is in line with the general trend, while the high performance cut reflects the fact that we did not qualify teams for the Olympic Games,” he said.

“While we still hope to have six to eight athletes at the Games, the fact we haven’t yet qualified teams made the case harder.

“Other high performance sports have also been doing well recently and there is only a finite amount of funding available” he said.

“The performance of our underage teams and some good individual results at senior level in show jumping and eventing were important insecuring the level of funding we have secured for 2012.

“The fact we have had no breaches of the FEI anti-doping rules in the past three years is also crucial,” he said, expressing gratitude to the Sports Council for its continued support.

McDonald did not outline what areas would suffer as a result of the cuts, but hinted it may impact directly on sport.

“This is the fourth year that we have had to deal with cuts and it gets more difficult to achieve the necessary savings from the administration budget,” he added.

The Sports Council core grant will not be announced until the New Year, but 2011 saw a 7% cut on the previous year to €827,974.

McDonald also said HSI’s application for €1m to be spent on prize money in the sport horse sector was still under consideration by the Government.

The fund would be divided between the various disciplines, with no deductions for administration.

“I think there is a recognition that our sector is completely under-funded when compared to similar sectors. The prize money proposal is seen as having merit and we will continue to pursue the issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Sports Minister Leo Varadkar confirmed a meeting will take place with HSI chairman Joe Walsh “early in the new year”. Junior Minister Michael Ring will also be present.

“It will be the first meeting between Mr Varadkar and Mr Walsh and they will discuss HSI’s role and the role played by the Department in the organisation,” said the spokesman.

He would not give details, but it can be expected that discussions will also focus on the lack of a fixed term for the office of HSI chairman and that HSI was set up as a limited company as against a statutory body, subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Recently, Mr Walsh revealed that he had written to the previous Minister for Sport Mary Hanafin in 2010 regarding the open-ended tenure of his office.

* DENIS LYNCH and Jessica Kürten scored a one-two at Mechelen, Belgium, last night, pocketing over €11,000 between them. Lynch and Night Train proved half a second faster than Kürten and API Largo in the two-phase competition.

Today’s World Cup class boasts a €25,000 car and €100,000 in cash.