An Irish Sports Council investment package of €33 million for Irish sport in 2013 has been unveiled by Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring. The money includes €19.3 million for National Governing Bodies of sport, €5.1 million for Local Sports Partnerships and €8.6 million for high performance sport.
The level of funding was reduced by 3% but this was less than expected and less than those applied under austerity measures reaching across the entire range of Government expenditure.
The total for National Governing Bodies includes €10.8 million for the core activities of 59 sports, €7.6 million to support the participation programmes of the GAA, FAI and IRFU and €840,000 in dedicated Women in Sport activities.
Throughout next week Sport for Business will analyse in greater detail the sports that have gained and lost in the 2013 round of funding but early sight of the figures suggests that Cricket, Pentathlon, Judo and Archery will have been among those celebrating as they learnt of their funding in recent weeks.
Others will not have been so pleased and we will look at some of the reasons why over the coming days.
Changes to the way in which individual high performance grants are distributed caused most raised eyebrows with questions asked over a fall in funding for Derval O’Rourke, a smaller than expected bump for Fionnuala Britton and Martyn Irvine and €12,000 allocated to Kenny Egan despite his retirement last month.
The Sports Council strove to answer all the questions with logical reasoning and some are attributable to the timing of the grants around particular seasons.
Seven sports have been dropped from individual funding and the high performance grants for Cycling, which was over €250,000 in 2012, canoeing and Clay pigeon Shooting were not agreed in time for the main announcement.
The national network of 31 Local Sports Partnerships will receive €5.1 million in investment to support their work in promoting participating in sport and physical activity especially in hard to reach groups. The Sports Partnerships offer a range of programmes including the Sports Inclusion Disability Officers.  This represents a drop of 7% on last year.
Speaking at the launch Minister Ring said: “The Government has ensured that sport continues to receive significant financial support, and we protected funding for the Sports Council in this year’s Budget. The Sports Council’s new investment plan highlights the huge range of organisations that will get essential support this year. I know the Sports Council has made every effort to protect funding for organisations that need it most. Above all, everyone appreciates that the sports community spends this money well, and generates a good return for our communities, our society and our national spirit.”
One notable new programme announced earlier this week was the provision of €275,000 to the IRFU to support their efforts to qualify a women’s team for the 7’s Olympic tournament in Rio 2016.  This was a first time that Rugby has featured in the high performance funding.
The Irish Sports Council will receive €43.153 million in grant aid from the Government in 2013. Today’s package of €33 million represents a large part of the Council’s investment in sport. This is the first year that Coaching Ireland, based at the University of Limerick, will operate as an integral part of the Council.
Other important activities include the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Programme, the Institute of Sport and the National Trails Office. Other grant programmes include the Team Ireland Golf Trust, Sport for Older People and the Gaelic Players Association.
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