ATHLETICS/Irish Sports Council Grants: When the Irish Sports Council can announce the annual elite athlete grants without any fuss or controversy it clearly suggests they're doing something right.
It's just two years since the issue raised some heated debate when several elite athletes had their grants either cut or significantly reduced without warning, and many more have been running scared ever since
What yesterday's announcement proved is the revised system is not only here to stay, but also more effective in giving the athletes what they really need - better opportunities for coaching, training and competition, and, of course, some hard cash. The days of handing over a cheque and saying good luck are truly over, and the 2007 grants are all about maximising the support given to the very best, while more carefully nurturing those with the potential to join them.
For that reason, only a select number of athletes benefit from direct funding - or the old carding scheme - that is now distributed under the revised qualifying criteria.
This is largely based on performances in 2006, and resulted in 11 athletes meeting the highest or Contracted Class, another 16 in World Class, and 61 in International Class.
Sprinter hurdler Derval O'Rourke, boxer Kenneth Egan and the lightweight four rowers are among those elevated to the top category of Contracted World Class for 2007.
This is worth €40,000 in the case of individuals, and €30,000 in the case of the rowers, and comes with the guarantee of continued support through to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The other contracted athletes are Jason Smyth, John McCarthy (who both get €40,000) and Michael McKillop (who gets €27,575) of the Paralympic sports and champion woman's boxer Katie Taylor, who gets the full €40,000. Other recent revisions to the grants, such as bonus payments, inclusion of teams and development and junior squads, have also been retained.
Athletics Ireland, for example, will have €36,000 made available to 16 athletes in their development squad. Similarly, the Irish Amateur Rowing Union gets €57,000 to assist a 19-strong junior squad, while another €54,000 goes into the junior boxing squad.
This makes for an overall grant total of €2,047,575 - spread across 20 different sports or categories. In addition, however, there is €5,245,000 set aside for the high-performance plans of 15 focus sports, and much of this money will trickle down to the athletes themselves.
The overall budget of over €7.2 million represents an increase of €1 million on 2006.
John Treacy, chief executive of the Sports Council, said the 2007 grants reflected another good year for Irish sport: "We saw many excellent performances in 2006 at championship level across a number of sports.
"That was thrilling to see and very encouraging for the future. The squads we are investing in today have plenty of internal competition, more reasons to be optimistic for the future.
"And there is a huge amount of other support now on top of the carding scheme, with an array of other programmes being put in place."
One of those main programmes is the new Irish Institute of Sport, which will be ultimately responsible for direct service delivery to elite athletes and sports. Seán Kelly, the executive director of the institute, updated the progress of that.
"We have our sports science director in place, Greg Whyte, and two more key appointments in sports medicine and lifestyle support will follow shortly. The key thing for us, then, is our new location at the Abbotstown campus, the new board, and the necessary legislation, and then we can start to make a real impact.
"But even then we're not saying that we'll provide all the services here, and that athletes will no longer need to go abroad.
"Athletes will always have the need to go away, whether for training or for coaching. That still applies in all walks of life."
The Equestrian Federation of Ireland support was not announced, pending the establishment of Horse Sport Ireland, while additional Olympic Council of Ireland funding will be announced shortly.
Contracted Athletes for 2007
Derval O'Rourke (athletics - world indoor champion, European silver medallist); Kenneth Egan (boxing - European bronze medallist); Katie Taylor (boxing - world and European champion); Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, Gearóid Towey, Tim Harnedy (rowing - lightweight four World Cup champions, world championship bronze medallists; Jason Smyth (Paralympic athletics - double world champion); Michael McKillop (Paralympic athletics - world champion, world silver); John McCarthy (Paralympic athletics - world bronze).
