Treacy claims bitterness and back-biting a thing of the past
The allocation of €6.88m for 42 sporting governing bodies yesterday, allied to €3.5m more for eight sports under the ‘Athens Enhancement Programme’ means that “everyone is now pulling the same rope”, said Treacy.
Speaking at the announcement of the grants in Dublin yesterday, Treacy conceded that nobody wanted to see a re-run of the aftermath of the Sydney games where finger-pointing and apportioning blame were the order of the day.
“Hopefully all those problems are now behind us,” said Treacy, adding: “and the best athletes will now have the best coaches and the best planners working in tandem with them so they can achieve optimum results in Athens.”
He described yesterday’s announcement by Sports Minister John O’Donoghue, as “focused investment” and said that the grants were a direct result of the examination of the ‘Sydney Review’ which had taken place in the wake of the fall-out in Australia in which various bodies were targeted by competitors and officials for failing to do right by the athletes.
“We are all now working together with the one aim in mind and that is to get our Olympians to Athens in the best possible shape they can be and also with the best back-up teams available to them.
“That is not to say that people should expect us to bring home a bunch of medals, rather it means that we have targeted areas where we think there are genuine medal possibilities and we have funnelled backing into those areas in order to get the best possible results,” said Treacy.Given that a lot of the post-Sydney blame for poor performance was laid at the door of the Olympic Council of Ireland, Treacy was high in his praise of the manner in which that organisation had co-operated with the formulation of this plan.
His sentiments were echoed by Sports Council chairman Pat O’Neill who said the package of €6.88m in financial support to NGBs was based on the needs of the sports bodies themselves and their athletes: “This type of targeted and strategic investment is fundamental to the transformation of the way sport is administered in Ireland. NGBs remain at the heart of Irish sport and are key partners of the Council, as identified in our newcorporate strategy ‘Sport for Life’.” Sports Minister John O’Donoghue, said the announcement underlined the government’s “enormous commitment” to Irish sport.
Aside from the €6.88m for 42 governing bodies, a further €1.59m is to be set aside for eight particular sports under the AEP: sailing (€370,000), boxing (€150,200), rowing (€300,000), athletics (€240,000), cycling (€150,000), hockey (€90,000), clay pigeon shooting (€90,000) and canoeing (€195,000).
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