Sport Ireland will reveal today the funding packages that will be made available to Irish sport’s governing bodies, high performance programmes and elite athletes.

It is indeed bizarre that we still exist in an age when funding for this year is announced in the fourth month but the battle to move to a multi year cycle of funding has yet to be won.

Today’s announcements will be logical, carefully thought through and based upon finding a medium ground between what sports have pitched for and say they need versus what is available.

As with any allocation of funding there will be some who will be happy, others less so.  Sport for Business will be there to talk to both and provide analysis on what is being made available.

The day will also double up as the publication of Sport Ireland’s review of Ireland’s performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016.

Impact

This will be about events on the track, in the pool and ‘between the lines’ of sport.  It is unlikely to touch much upon the events that blew up around the management of the Olympic Council of Ireland in advance and on the ground though it will be interesting to see what lines are drawn between the impact of one on the other.

The Minister, Patrick O’Donovan will be there, as well as Sport Ireland Chair Kieran Mulvey, CEO John Treacy and the Director of High Performance and National Governing Bodies Paul McDermott.

Sport Ireland High Performance committee Member Olive Loughnane will be a voice representing the athletes.

Four years ago, in the cycle immediately following the previous Olympic Games the total investment in High Performance was revealed as €8.6 million with €19.3 million in core funding for the NGB’s.

It will be interesting to see how those figures have changed over the intervening four years, who are the winner and losers and where sport is heading in 2017.