Ireland is about to learn how expensive it is to put an athlete onto an Olympic or World Championship podium, according to the Irish Sports Council (ISC), which launched their "High Performance Strategy" yesterday.

The move, which is backed with a £2.36 million (€3 million) budget allocation to fund the first year of the five-year programme, is multi-faceted, but is essentially designed to identify athletic potential in Ireland and back it up with facilities and coaching.

The strategy deliberately takes a narrow view in the hope of producing medal winners and finalists at world level.

The establishment of an Irish institute of sport is identified, which is in keeping with other successful nations such as Britain and Australia, comprises a network of facilities. It is proposed that Ireland's centres will be located at the University of Limerick, in Belfast and at the proposed Sports Campus Ireland in Dublin. It is also hoped to attract professional international coaches.

"We are playing catch-up," said ISC chief executive John Treacy. "A lot of other national councils have been in existence for many years, some up to 20 years.

"We are making great strides in terms of funding, and we are addressing the needs of Irish sport, but we are playing catch-up. We've got to be realistic in terms of what we can achieve in year one."

The report of the 15-member committee, chaired by Dan Flinter, the chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, also plans to make a priority of those national governing bodies, such as sailing, athletics, boxing, and rowing, which have proven that they can deliver at World Championship and Olympic level.

"The federations we spoke to want very much co-ordination for high performance sport. That is what came back to us very strongly indeed," said Treacy

The programme will be looking for £32 million (€40.64 million) over the five years, with this year's grant earmarked for initial up-and-running costs.