FUNDING FOR IRISH sport has been rolled back to 2006 levels, a measure that is “particularly damaging” given that meaningful investment only began seven years prior to that, the Federation of Irish Sport has said today following the Budget 2014 announcement.
The Irish Sports Council will receive about €40 million next year, a reduction of about €3.1 million on 2013 figures.
“We are extremely disappointed with today’s announcement which sees a further 8% reduction in current funding for Irish Sport,” said the representative body.
Advertisement
“This is the funding that enables over 100 Irish Sports organisations to run sports development programmes essential to delivering sporting opportunities to all, provide much needed support to grassroots clubs and volunteers as well as providing assistance to our international athletes.”
It is the sixth year in a row of cuts, with investment in sport falling some 25 per cent in that period.
“Funding for sport through the Irish Sports Council now amounts to a spend of just €8.73 per citizen,” continued chief executive Sarah O’Connor, who has requested a meeting with the Minister for Sport Leo Varadkar and his officials.
O’Connor believes the fall in sports funding will put added stress on the health budget in later years.
The overall investment in sport at €40 million for 2014 represents just 0.003 per cent of the €13.3 billion projected health spend.
“Cuts to sports funding are at odds with wider government policies and counter intuitive as sporting events have proven to be key drivers in boosting tourism figures during the Gathering,” she argued.
“As we slowly emerge from recession it is short sighted and unnecessary to target one of the performing sectors in the economy which has the potential to further create sustainable, indigenous employment and economic growth.”
This is an incredibly short sighted move by the government. Continued lack of a joined up strategy on how to further increase use of sport to assist in education and health needed now more than ever. Knock on effect will be felt in years to come with health problems due to lack of physical activity. A large portion of the funding goes into participation programs and these will be the ones that suffer the most due to the cuts. And before people have a pop at high performance athletes, think long and hard about the sacrifices they make to represent Ireland – the financial rewards are paltry.
Incredibly disappointed to hear this. Sport generates money and jobs for Ireland as well as benefits the health of the nation. Just looking at 2012s figures with 80 million invested in Irish sport and a return of 1.8 BILLION to the economy or 1.4% of the GDP.. surely that says something?
It’s not necessarily about those who can or want to play sport, there’s a bigger picture here and investing in sport has numerous benefits to every citizen of Ireland. IN MY OPINION.
I agree Rack sport is vital for a countries morale and general well being and benefits us all when we collectively benefit from a team or persons success. It is unimaginable to think we would abandon all our sports because of economic hardship.
But I wonder do the sports council raise money from private donations or are they just a quango to distribute the governments money. I’d imagine sports can be very well funded by companies sponsorship and people willing to donate.
Too much. Sport is elitist and the vast majority of cash is spent on those at the top. I for one have not benefited in any way from Katie Taylors gold medal
Such absolute scutter being spouted by some people here. Sport offers vast opportunities to people of ages. Being physically active has been found to improve mental health by reducing depression and improving self esteem. The physical benefits are endless, reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels to name a few. There are people who are employed directly by NGB’s nationwide who deliver initiatives at local level in schools and communities to combat the above that will now be victim of needless cuts and WILL lose their job.
Sport and culture – the easy option. Obesity on the rise – sure we’ll deal with that sometime soon. How very Irish.
McIlroy struggles with opening round 74 at PGA Championship
17 mins ago
AnalysisPremier Pride
Goals powered Tipperary to defining win - now they seek to maintain progress
29 mins ago
0
RIP
Former Springbok winger Cornal Hendricks dies at 37
10 hrs ago
9
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 187 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 126 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 165 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 129 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 91 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 92 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 44 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 41 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 150 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 69 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 88 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 95 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 40 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 56 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 29 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 107 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 111 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 79 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 60 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 100 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 83 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Don’t worry people like John Delaney and Tom Hickey still get paid fat stacks.
John Delaney and the FAI don’t get amy funding from the sports council !
The fai is still funded by the state isn’t it? €400,000 a year he was on in 2011, not sure what it is now but that’s twice as much as Enda was on
Sorry, that’s not correct – see here:
http://www.irishsportscouncil.ie/Governing_Bodies/Sports_Investment/Soccer/
http://www.politics.ie/forum/culture-community/213426-should-we-still-fund-fai-agm-last-weekend-raises-concerns.html
Incorrect
I am paying €8.73 for sport? How did this happen, I’d call me TD only they have taken away me phone.
8.73 for sport
if we were paying 8.73 for the peado church. we would all “protest”
but the sport people get a free pass
WHY ? ?
Are you lost Gerard?
This is an incredibly short sighted move by the government. Continued lack of a joined up strategy on how to further increase use of sport to assist in education and health needed now more than ever. Knock on effect will be felt in years to come with health problems due to lack of physical activity. A large portion of the funding goes into participation programs and these will be the ones that suffer the most due to the cuts. And before people have a pop at high performance athletes, think long and hard about the sacrifices they make to represent Ireland – the financial rewards are paltry.
Incredibly disappointed to hear this. Sport generates money and jobs for Ireland as well as benefits the health of the nation. Just looking at 2012s figures with 80 million invested in Irish sport and a return of 1.8 BILLION to the economy or 1.4% of the GDP.. surely that says something?
http://irishsport.ie/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/3525_SportMatters_AR_Final.pdf
It’s not necessarily about those who can or want to play sport, there’s a bigger picture here and investing in sport has numerous benefits to every citizen of Ireland. IN MY OPINION.
I agree Rack sport is vital for a countries morale and general well being and benefits us all when we collectively benefit from a team or persons success. It is unimaginable to think we would abandon all our sports because of economic hardship.
But I wonder do the sports council raise money from private donations or are they just a quango to distribute the governments money. I’d imagine sports can be very well funded by companies sponsorship and people willing to donate.
i admire Katie taylor
she inspires me :)
now if she knocked on my door asking for money
my inspiration would dry up pretty quick
i remember pat spillane on the late late
he said “the GAA are the only organisation that don’t have any financial records
now if FF or SF or anybody else were not accountable,, there would be uproar
wouldn’t there ?
sad but was bound to happen
When it’s put in that context it hits home how pitiful it is.
Too much. Sport is elitist and the vast majority of cash is spent on those at the top. I for one have not benefited in any way from Katie Taylors gold medal
Why should you benefit??
Back to 2006 levels? I wonder how many people in ireland r earning more than they did in 2006 if they were in full time employment back then
That’s too much! I could get 3 comics for that!
last 3 i bought were..
GIRL DRAGON TATTOO -denise mina
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR -julie marsh
SIN CITY A DAME TO KILL FOR -frank miller
there will be a DREDD sequel soon btw
Such absolute scutter being spouted by some people here. Sport offers vast opportunities to people of ages. Being physically active has been found to improve mental health by reducing depression and improving self esteem. The physical benefits are endless, reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels to name a few. There are people who are employed directly by NGB’s nationwide who deliver initiatives at local level in schools and communities to combat the above that will now be victim of needless cuts and WILL lose their job.
Sport and culture – the easy option. Obesity on the rise – sure we’ll deal with that sometime soon. How very Irish.