Time passes quickly in sport. Yesterday’s Champions become today’s role models but the restless eye of public interest is already looking for the stars of tomorrow.
Yesterday the Irish Sports Council announced the distribution of how Government money was to be spent on sport in this important pre-Olympic year.
As our exclusive analysis below shows there can be no complaint from athletes over the increases of funding being put behind campaigns to deliver in Rio.
Our analysis of the four sports into which the most money goes at this level shows increases over the three year pre-Olympic cycle of between 10 and 28% between Athletics, Boxing, Swimming and Sailing.
The talk yesterday was of personal bests and developing talent but within 16 months that talk will be narrowed down to the higher pressure analysis of finals appearances and medals.
| Olympic Cycle High Performance Funding for Top Olympic Sports | |||
| 2013-2015 | 2009-2011 | ||
| Athletics | 2,480,000 | 2,246,000 | 10.40% |
| Swimming | 1,614,500 | 1,347,000 | 20.40% |
| Boxing | 2,593,300 | 2,161,000 | 20.00% |
| Sailing | 1,910,000 | 1,482,000 | 28.90% |
“The time for cuts is over, let’s move on” was the rallying cry of Minister for Sport Michael Ring who outlined an investment figure of €19.6 million for the National Governing Bodies of Sport and in specific funding for high performance programmes leading to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio next year.
This represents a rise of €1 million on the equivalent figure for 2014 and is reward for the rising numbers in terms of participation that sport has laid claim to over the past 12 months.
Between 2011 and 2013 active participation in sport increased from 44.8 to 47.2% of the population.
“It is important to strike the right balance between supporting those at the elite end of their sport and those programmes designed to get the rest of the population of the nation active,” said Irish Sports Council Chairman Kieran Mulvey.
The investment includes an allocation of €10.85 million to 59 National Governing Bodies to support their core work of administration and participation programmes. This year’s figure includes increases to support specific initiatives in the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, the Confederation of Irish Golf and Hockey Ireland.
Special note was also made of the €600,000 in support of the Women in Sport programme of 23 sports with additional support for the specific successful programmes in swimming, rowing and badminton.
The programme, which aims to raise overall physical activity levels among women, has been a key driver in closing the gender gap in sport as women’s participation has grown from 39% (2011) to 42.7% (2013).
2015 investment plans will include support for the ‘Swim for a Mile’ initiative from Swim Ireland which aims to deliver 10,000 participants and Rowing Ireland’s, ‘Get Going, Get Rowing’ programme which aims to get an additional 5,000 women participating in 2015.
€8.16m will be invested in 22 Performance Plans which will support Ireland participation at the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games. The high performance NGBs also benefit from the direct service provision at the Institute of Sport, the development of high performance facilities at the National Sports Campus, the 2015 International Carding Scheme and the special sports equipment grants; a comprehensive and integrated package of support for Ireland’s top performers.
“I am delighted to be here today to announce a very significant package of sports investment by the Irish Sports Council,” added Ring who also revealed he was to meet Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howling to determine the amount available for the forthcoming third round of sports capital grants in four years.
“Today’s investment is a substantial commitment from the Irish Government to the National Governing Bodies of Sport in Ireland.”
“The importance of sport cannot be understated. Sport has the unique ability to activate local communities through participation and volunteerism whilst uniting a nation to support our athletes on the world stage.
“As the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games come into view, it is imperative we maintain investment so that we continue to build on the excellent performances of recent years in high performance sport,” added Irish Sports Council CEO John Treacy
“The resources made available in late 2014 by Minister Ring are invaluable for the sports and have been invested in vital equipment, camps and the all-important competition schedules”.
The details of the €1.6 million investment in the 2015 International Carding Scheme will be announced at a later date, as will performance programme funding for the main field sports of GAA, Rugby and Soccer.
You can look at the full detail of the Irish Sports Council funding for 2015 below…
Image Credits: Inpho.ie
