The Government will be providing additional funding to sport in the wake of the success at the Olympic Games, the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has signalled.
The Minister said that he had no doubt that the record seven medals won by Irish athletes at the games in Paris in recent weeks would be used to make the case that additional money should be allocated to sport.
He said he had met the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism and Sport Thomas Byrne in recent days and that “he began to make that argument to me”.
Mr Donohoe also said that the Government would be making “some really big and positive announcements about sport capital funding in September“. He said this would be “an example of our continued investment in sport in communities”.
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Mr Donohoe said additional allocations to sport over recent years had been used to great effect.
“I’ve no doubt at all that the Olympic success will be used to make the case for more sports funding. And there’s a really strong argument to be made there for the simple reason that the increased funding that (with) the Department of Sport and Sport Ireland have received in recent years, they have obviously used (it) through the Olympic movement of Ireland to great effect.”
The Minister said he wanted to recognise the achievement of Sarah Keane, the president of the Olympic Federation of Ireland and the organisation itself for the way in which increased funding “has been used to increase elite performance levels and to increase our medals”.
“Will the Department of Sport be getting more funding? Yes, they will be, as every other Government department does. How much more funding will they be getting, and what would that be used for? That would be the subject (to be) teased out in the weeks to come”, Mr Donohoe said.
The Minister pointed to the national sports campus at Abbotstown and the national indoor arena at the complex.
“You can see (there) an example of the investment that the Government has already made that has been used to great benefit and effect by all of the national sporting bodies that are out there.”
“Money has been really, really well spent out there and you saw the effect of that at the Olympics but you can (also) see the effect of it every Saturday and Sunday morning when you see the number of girls, boys, women and men of all ages and levels of ability that are out there at the national sports campus.”
