Govt announces €1m to upgrade facilities for women's boxing

Irish boxing clubs are to benefit from €1m in Government funding to upgrade training facilities for young boxers, particularly women.

The allocation will be administered by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association.

At the end of last year, the Government announced funding for a brand new club in Olympian Katie Taylor's hometown of Bray.

The Minister of State for Sport Michael Ring said the sport has become very popular for young girls looking to follow in Katie's footsteps.

Mr Ring said: "It is really to target young girls that are getting into boxing now that don’t have the facilities there for them.

"We are making the funding available to the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, they already have dealt with 50 clubs around the country, they have 70 more clubs waiting to draw down funding.

"The good thing about it is that the IABA will do the paperwork, will provide the engineering work and will be working with the clubs themselves."