Athletics still leads in race for funds

Sports Grants: Yesterday's Irish Sports Council handouts to 54 national governing bodies amounted to one of those feel-good days when most sports - though not all - see their grants increased.

Swimming, whose funding has been stopped following an audit of Swim Ireland, is one significant omission from the list of sports that receive a slice of the €6.8 million 2004 handout.

Motor Sport Ireland and the associations running tug-of-war, pitch and putt and triathlon are among a number of organisations whose funding is slightly decreased.

Once more the overall financial support, which allows the organisations to perform their core administrative activities, has increased. In the four years since 2000 it has gone up from €13 million to €30.75 million.

Again Athletics Ireland tops the list. The governing body for track and field - for which the years of the summer Olympics always present the biggest challenge - received €570,450.

Tennis Ireland is the second-biggest beneficiary, with €468,463.

Tennis, which has struggled for years to push a player even into the top 200 in the world, is rewarded, in part, for the numbers who play the game and its professional set-up and management. With luck, a top-200 player could well arrive within the next two years.

Many factors determine how much funding governing bodies (NGBs) receive - it is not simply a matter of the numbers engaged in the sport. The ability to organise and develop clear plans and structures is a priority.

All the organisations listed in yesterday's announcement receive their funding based on plans agreed with the ISC.

The money also complements the ongoing practical support offered to national governing bodies by the ISC, including training, strategic planning, the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Programme and implementation of the Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children's Sport.

"The Irish Sports Council consistently has placed the national governing bodies at the heart of our strategy for developing sport in Ireland. We have delivered increased funding year on year, which is augmented by practical supports and programmes to improve performance and service by the sports bodies," said the ISC chairman, Pat O'Neill.