logo-businesspostThis column by Sport for Business Founder Rob Hartnett first appeared in the Sunday Business Post on Sunday, October 16th.

There is always a lot of detail in the Budget. Ministers rise to their feet and give the speeches that drive the bullet points on the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen.

Large accountancy practices and mainstream media rush to update tax calculators and define annual spending plans that run to tens of billions of Euros in phrases of three words or less.

The general theme of Budget 2017 was ‘Something for Everyone’ with pensioners, self employed, new home buyers and sheep among the winners.

There were 1000 new nursing positions, 800 new gardai and €25 million towards welfare programmes for wooly creatures.

But in sporting circles there were mutterings of discontent.

Campus

The €25 million that had gone towards completion of the next phase of the National Sports Campus in last years budget was not being replaced or anywhere near it.

There was an increase in the spending ‘envelope’ for sport but the main thrust in this one particular area of the budget was on capital projects.

The mid term review of big ticket spending in the coming months will likely bring to life a fresh round of capital sports project funding which will build better infrastructure in clubs and regions around the country.

But the mutterings were growing louder.

High Water

There was an additional €6 million towards Horse and Greyhound Racing, bringing state money for those two sports back above the previous high water mark of €62 million last achieved in 2008.

Those involved in most other sports though don’t consider that as money for ‘real’ sport and anyway that comes from the Agriculture budget.

To those who realised, it was an even stronger slap as it was in fact the final element of a three year pledge to increase the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund given by Minister Noonan back in 2014.

The Federation of Irish Sport has been calling for multi annual funding commitments for a long time, to no avail yet.

Languishing

The calculators were being tapped and record books consulted. They showed that in comparison to this full ‘bounce back’ for racing , the grant to Sport Ireland to cover areas including high performance, participation, local sports partnerships, anti doping, core funding for National Governing Bodies, the National Sports Campus and more would have to pretty much make do with what was given last year. Sport Ireland funding still languishes some 20% below its own high water mark of the last decade.

Now the mutterings were very audible and doubtless making their way back to Kildare Street. They will not have gone down well.

There is a persistent difference of opinion between Government and sport over the respective value of capital versus current spending. Both sides are adamant that they are right and the other ‘just doesn’t understand’.

It’s sport so differences of opinion are the norm but this is more serious than most bar room arguments on the merit of Mayo goalkeepers or Munster Rugby.

The majority of sporting organisations in Ireland remain overly dependent on investment from the state.

Investment

Investment is different to grants both in semantics and philosophy but sport is only slowly winning the argument that getting people active will reduce costs in health and lead to a better society.

It’s unfortunate that the time frame for so doing is longer than really works in a political democracy so while change is coming it is slow.

An additional €1.4 million was made available from Dormant Accounts Funding the week before the budget and that goes to specific programmes supporting the objectives of the national Physical Activity Plan.

The problem remains though that this is seen as going towards specific Government supported projects rather than where sporting bodies feel there is a greater need and ultimate benefit.

‘Big Three’

We have just come through another Olympic cycle and the hope is that raised levels of performance on the biggest stage will carry through the next four quieter years and push sports other than the ‘Big Three’ more to the fore.

The argument, passionately held and cogently put by those who hold it to be self evident is that elite performance inspires greater participation.

Government is not fully convinced. There is a sense that it is better to get 100 people running around a park than one around an Olympic track. Both are vital but one has to be more vital than the other unless you are operating to an unlimited level of funding.

Without extra money Ireland will not achieve the level of performance at Olympic Games enjoyed by countries of similar size but greater investment like New Zealand.

Crying shame

For those closest to it this is a crying shame. For others though they have moved on. To All Ireland Finals, Rugby Internationals and the wellbeing of Robbie Brady.

Sport is in a bind. On one hand it is a massive business, with global finances running to beyond our entire national budget. On the other it is a critical community service that makes society a better place to live but cannot stand on its own financial feet.

There is an ethical dilemma for politics in supporting sport with public funds while reading about accusations at different levels of wild excess.

There’s no such dilemma in increasing spending on sheep.

Rob Hartnett is the founder of Sport for Business, and a co-Founder of the One Zero Conference at the RDS next Friday.