After welcoming himself back, Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan began the announcement of €31.3 million in core sport funding for this year by speaking first about gender balance, then diversity. The latter would be among his priorities over the next five years of government.
Now heading the Department of Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport, he previously served for a year as Minister of State for Transport, Tourism and Sport, from May 2016, and had highlighted then the need for greater gender balance among the 58 national governing bodies (NGBs) of Irish sport.
The Government got there, eventually, and after announcing the €31.3 million core funding investment package for this year at the Sport Ireland Arena in Abbotstown, Dublin, O’Donovan turned part of his attention to diversity.
“In my speech, I did say I would like the new iteration of the sports policy, and I spent an awful lot of time on the last sports policy,” he said. “What I would be saying is, football is an obvious one, where it doesn’t recognise a language and is universal and gives us an opportunity to integrate people that might feel on the fringes or might certainly feel they are less Irish, which they shouldn’t, or that they are less a part of a community.
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“It [football] doesn’t recognise a language. Particularly for the new Irish coming into this country, and the growth of hate and racism and everything else.”
The core funding investment is a sort of annual pay-day for the NGBs of Irish sport, the total allocation of €18.3 million being an increase of €1 million on last year’s amount. Another €11.94 million will go to the network of 29 local sports partnerships (LSPs).
There is an increase too in the Women in Sport allocation, which delivers initiatives for women in disadvantaged communities, older women and teenage girls and those with a disability or from ethnic minorities.
As with recent years, the top five highest funded NGBs are Special Olympics Ireland (€1.65 million), Athletics Ireland (€1.27 million), Swim Ireland (€1.215 million), Horse Sport Ireland (€1.105 million) and Basketball Ireland (€930,000). The NGBs for the three big team sports – the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI – receive separate government allocations towards their core funding.
On gender balance, Sport Ireland set out to ensure a 40 per cent gender representation on the boards of national sports organisations, with half of state funding withheld until such a time as gender representation was achieved. The percentage of women on boards now stands at 48 per cent overall.
O’Donovan was asked how this gender balance in sports bodies sat against the current Cabinet, which only has 25 per cent representation for women.
“Government is totally different,” he said. “Government is not an NGB, it’s not an entity. National governing bodies for sport are answerable to Sport Ireland. We are trying to reflect to the greatest degree possible the participation of men and women, boys and girls. The selection of Cabinet is a completely different thing.”
There will also be a multiannual approach to core funding allocations from next year, allowing NGBs to plan for strategic decisions to be made every three years.
Funding for Swimming Activators will support the first national swimming strategy, with a Disability in Sport Lead also being appointed, as well as a new dedicated events investment policy for the hosting of smaller scale international sporting events in 2026.
O’Donovan was also asked if he could be sure all this money would be well spent, given what has unfolded in other parts of the department.
“I asked the secretary general to write to all the organisations that come under the umbrella of our department to see if there are issues we should be aware of, particularly around capital funding. When you’re giving out public money you want to know that it’s being spent on the purpose the Oireachtas voted for and that the department gave it out for,” he said.
Sport Ireland chief executive Dr Una May gave an update on the progress of the national velodrome and badminton, due for construction immediately adjacent to the Indoor Arena.
“It’s out for tender at the moment, and we expect the tenders to be back in the next number of weeks. Obviously it’s a massive project, there’ll be a lengthy evaluation process, but we are hoping to kick-start the construction of the velodrome in the summer of this year.
“And our intention and our vision is that the velodrome will be ready a year out from the Olympics. We won’t be building new talent from the velodrome for LA, but we hope that our existing talent will have somewhere to train closer to home in that last year before LA.”
National Governing Body (NGB) core funding amount for 2025
Special Olympics Ireland: €1.65 million
Athletics Ireland: €1.27 million
Swim Ireland: €1.215 million
Horse Sport Ireland: €1.105 million
Basketball Ireland: €930,000
Tennis Ireland: €760,000
Cricket Ireland: €595,000
Ladies Gaelic Football Association: €595,000
Irish Athletic Boxing Association: €595,000
Irish Sailing: €545,000
The Camogie Association: €545,000
Cycling Ireland: €525,000
Badminton Ireland: €515,000
Gymnastics Ireland: €445,000
Hockey Ireland: €435,000
Rowing Ireland: €420,000
Golf Ireland: €415,000
Irish Wheelchair Association Sport: €380,000
Canoeing Ireland: €375,000
National Community Games: €340,000
Triathlon Ireland: €320,000
Squash Ireland: €320,000
Mountaineering Ireland: €285,000
Volleyball Ireland: €280,000
Motorsport Ireland: €240,000
Table Tennis Ireland: €230,000
Irish Judo Association: €180,000
Pitch and Putt Ireland: €165,000
Irish Surfing: €150,000
Vision Sports Ireland: €140,000
Diving Ireland: €140,000
GAA Handball Ireland: €130,000
Snooker & Billiards Ireland: €115,000
Orienteering Ireland: €100,000
Irish Clay Target Shooting Association: €95,000
Irish Martial Arts Commission: €90,000
Fencing Ireland: €90,000
Olympic Handball Ireland: €90,000
Weightlifting Ireland: €90,000
Deaf Sports Ireland: €85,000
Irish Lawn Bowls: €85,000
Tug of War Ireland: €75,000
American Football Ireland: €75,000
Irish Tenpin Bowling Association: €65,000
Irish Waterski & Wakeboard Federation: €60,000
Twirl Ireland Federation: €58,000
Racquetball Association of Ireland: €58,000
Motorcycling Ireland: €55,000
Angling Council of Ireland: €55,000
Irish Ice Hockey Association: €55,000
National Karate: €55,000
Bol Chumann na hÉireann: €50,000
Irish Amateur Wrestling Association: €50,000
Speleological Union of Ireland: €50,000
Archery Ireland: €50,000
Croquet Association of Ireland: €45,000
Rugby League Ireland: €40,000
Taekwondo Ireland: €37,000
Total: €18.3 million
