The Irish Sports Council has announced increased funding for Paralympics Ireland and athletes travelling to the London Paralympic games. The overall investment this year rises to €1,625,000.In addition to existing grants of €625,000 to individual athletes and annual core funding of €300,000, a further €700,000 has now been been committed to support Paralympics Ireland’s High Performance plan.
Paralympic programmes are also integrated into the national High-Performance plans for sailing, rowing and cycling. Additional funding for these programmes has been secured for 2012 and is included in the overall allocation from the Irish Sports Council to each sport.
John Treacy, CEO of the ISC said: “Paralympic sport is incredibly competitive and in order to succeed you need talented athletes and coaches supported by significant investment.”
“The whole country will get behind the team and everyone is looking forward to the Games. It is essential that everything is done in order to allow the athletes perform to their best in London.”
The announcement was made as events in London were held to mark there being 100 days to go until the Paralympics Opening Ceremony. These have not been without controversy as disability campaigners protested about the presence among the sponsors of Atos healthcare, a company used to test disability claimants’ fitness to work as part of social welfare reforms.
The roster of sponsors of the Irish team includes Renault, Allianz, Vodafone, Cadbury and OCS. Setanta Ireland will broadcast up to ten hours a day live coverage from the games on a free to air basis.
