Field of big dreams

IN former years we had promises, lot of promises. Yesterday, we were given no promises, lots of no promises. Bernard Allen, Minister of Sport, was adamant that this time there would be no promises made. He would not boldly go where sports ministers had gone before.

"I'm not in the game of promises," he promised, as he introduced this Government's new strategy for the funding and administration of sport in Ireland.

Dublin Castle was eminently suited for a launch that would change the face of sport in this country if ... if Fianna Fail don't win the general election and decide to install their own. entirely similar sports strategy which they released several weeks ago.

The credible John Treacy flanked the minister, and the body of 12 people who had pulled together the all-encompassing report sat behind."This," said John, swinging his left arm towards those behind him, "this group sprinted the marathon to get this done." John should know, he is our only modern Olympic marathon medal winner.

The 109-page report and 24-page summary document, Targeting Sporting Change in Ireland is indeed a heroic attempt at revising the management and structures of sport in Ireland.

But will it be implemented? That's all anyone wanted to know. They asked who would fund it? Would there be any more lottery money available? Would all the other ministries co-operate with the Minister's strategy? We wanted to know when the grand plan would take a grand shape and how long would it take to filter down to athletes?

"Plans are made to be implemented, not put on shelves," said Allen. "This is not an aspirational document, but a pragmatic document." The sound bites were beginning to hit.

"Build and we can aim," he added, employing a more modern remix of Kevin Costner's Field Of Dreams hit: "Build it and they will come.

"Irish sport has developed in a very ad hoc manner over the years. This model is based on international models."

It was an aspirational day. We aspired to understand exactly what was being put on the table. The Minister aspired to convince us that the "Sporting Challenge" had been met and appointed John Treacy as the official head of the project.

But we wanted more meat. What about the 50-metre pool? The 50-metre pool is one of those things you use to beat every sports minister about the head with. Someone else in the room had examined it very closely too, and put it to the Minister that a pool would indeed be built. But, wait for it, it would be constructed in Northern Ireland and it would be funded by Britain. The Minister promised that he had not heard of the idea.

We all looked to the front at Michelle Smith, who had to leave Ireland because she couldn't train properly here and the broken-handed Michael Carruth, who turned professional, partly because of the dismal state amateur boxing has been allowed fall into, and we all clapped. For it was in a good mood we left.

We exited the castle dreaming of the Ryder Cup in 2005, hoping that come the election next May, it all wouldn't sink without trace.

In a 50-metre pool, of course.