Minister of State Jack Chambers has committed once again to strong continued investment in Irish sport and to a move towards multi-annual funding as part of that.
A new Sports Action Plan, derived from the National Sports policy, will be published once sport has found its feet again as part of the gradual return to action over the coming weeks.
He was speaking last night with Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business as we kicked off the Federation of Irish Sport Sport Industry Innovation Series
The online event was attended by over 60 National Governing Bodies and Local Sports partnerships and will continue tonight with a look at the international aspects of Irish Sport and on Thursday with a fresh look at Innovation.
Last night’s session was based on the theme of investment and it was positive to hear that the minister is committed to not only working on the here and now but also on research and innovation coming out of the third level sector.
“Collaboration, innovation and enterprise opportunities will help us to drive our sports policies forward,” he said.
Matt Dossett the President of Student Sport Ireland welcomed that reference saying “We have world-leading research hubs and expertise within our universities and colleges and we look forward to exploring future collaborations with Sport Ireland.”
The Minister of State said that Government would be there to support sporting bodies who have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, referencing the €70 million Sports resilience fund from 2020 and the increase in funding secured as part of the budget for 2021, with more to come.
The evening had begun looking at the two other strands of funding with Aoife Clarke of Lidl and Richie Gernon of EBS talking through the ways in which commercial partnerships can be a powerful enabler of projects from the work being done to raise interest in sport for Women and girls at the LGFA and beyond to support for volunteering initiatives across the sporting spectrum.
Denise Charlton spoke of the yet untapped power of philanthropy and how the Community Foundation for Ireland had already scoped a number of projects in sport arising out of requests for assistance in identifying projects for personal philanthropists.
The final session focused on where investment could leverage the innovation that was taking off in the sporting sector.
Hartnett referenced the fact that sport could be seen as the new ‘space race’ in terms of being a breeding ground for innovation in human performance, media and more, a view that was endorsed by Benny Cullen and Cormac McDonnell of Sport Ireland.
Alberto Bichi of the European Platform for Sports Innovation spoke of the world that was happening at the international level and how different projects were growing stronger through a sharing of knowledge and expertise.
Sport for Business Partners
