The mood music around sports funding, and the size of the commitments made by Government in the past year have been uniformly positive. This year’s budget through Sport Ireland is up €3 million to €47 million and the total amount going into sport, excluding horse and greyhound racing from this year’s budget is €126 million.
There is a cloud on the horizon though looking to the UK where the Sport and Recreation Alliance, a very active equivalent to our Federation of Irish Sport is forecasting massive cuts in funding to sport over the coming years.
It is bracing itself doe a cut later this month, as a result of a UK comprehensive spending review of between 25 and 40 per cent.
That would be a massive blow to many of the sporting programmes which we might look to as best in class.
The Alliance is organising a #GetYourKitOn campaign to use social media for people to tell the UK Chancellor George Osborne just what grassroots sport means to them.
“We understand difficult decisions have to be made but cuts of this size would have serious repercussions for grassroots sport, said Emma Boggis, CEO of the Alliance.
“So we are calling for everyone who plays or who has children who play grassroots sport to spend 60 seconds contacting the Chancellor to tell them how much they value our grassroots sport.”
“Cutting investment in sport and recreation will have serious consequences in the short term. More significant costs lie further down the line – with a serious impact stored up for health and education budgets as well as a hugely detrimental effect on our economic productivity.”
“Government recognises the need to invest in our national physical infrastructure, but needs to take investment in our population’s health and wellbeing just as seriously. “
It is part of the human condition that we get stuck in the moment, feeling that good times or bad times will last forever.
At present Irish sport is on the crest of a funding wave, with investment in the National Sports Campus leaving us a permanent legacy of when spending began to flow after a lean period.
We should though be cautious that nothing is forever and never stop telling the positive story of how sport benefits so many aspects of the national mood and identity, beyond the winning of cups and medals.
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