Sports Ireland funding increases to €27 million

Payday for the 59 national governing bodies of Irish sport, and with the Rio Olympic countdown now well underway, overall Government funding for 2016 is up again on last year, with a total package of €27 million announced in Mayo yesterday.

It marks an increase of around €3 million on last year, starting with the €10.86m to the 59 National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to support their core work.

There is also an allocation of €8.36 million to fund the high performance units of the Olympic sports, to include investment in Performance Plans, the Olympic Council of Ireland, and Paralympics Ireland.

There was special additional support provided to Hockey Ireland (€530,000) and Modern Pentathlon Ireland (€230,000) who delivered notable results in 2015 and now aiming to deliver in in Rio

Extra support was also provided to the IRFU towards the Olympic Repechage Rugby 7s taking place in UCD in June.

Another €1.8 million is invested through the International Carding Scheme, the details of which will be announced next month

Support package

A total of €200,000 will be invested through the Team Ireland Golf Trust to provide direct financial support to a number of golfers– as well as additional financial support to hosting the Challenge Tour event in Ireland. As part of the support package under the scheme, all golfers can avail of the world class practice facilities at the GUI’s National Academy at Carton House.

Another €600,000 will be invested in NGBs specifically towards Women in Sport Programmes to ensure opportunities for women across the sporting spectrum (with further investment to be announced across the FAI and IRFU) and a further €114,700 through Local Sports Partnerships

Added investment has also been allocated to Paralympics Ireland (€615,000) to support their pre-games camp in Uberlandia and all their Rio games activities; there is also an investment in Special Olympics of €1.2 million.

All the funding is now distributed through Sport Ireland whose CEO John Treacy said: "While 2016 will be a vital year in relation to Rio, we are also focused on our other obligations including our participation initiatives, supporting events at home and our anti doping programme."