Sports funding down €9m

SPORT escaped the sharpest edge of the supplementary budget’s scissors yesterday with expenditure in the area reduced by a further €9m (4.4%) from the figure announced last October.

That leaves the annual sports budget at e195m after the record 34% reduction late last year and the subsequent revelation that funding on all sports capital projects was to be suspended.

It remains to be seen where the latest cutbacks will be made. The Revised Estimates, which will detail grant aid through the Irish Sports Council, are due to be published next week and there is still much paperwork to be done before the final figures are nailed down.