ALL SPORTS:The Irish Sports Council (ISC) have defended their system of funding and high-performance carding scheme in response to comments from Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI).

John Treacy, chief executive of the ISC, clarified Hickey's claim that the OCI wasn't having any input into the carding scheme, and that the scheme was failing to pick up some promising athletes.

Treacy was speaking at yesterday's announcement of the €11.91 million in core funding for the 57 National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of Irish sport, with another €1.57 million allocated specifically for women's programmes.

"Just this morning there was a sub-committee meeting on the carding funding, and Stephen Martin (OCI chief executive) was part of that," said Treacy. "So we think they should connect, in terms of - the president should talk with the chief executive. I know that they (OCI) are involved, and that sub-committee was making decisions on the carding funding."

Earlier this week, Hickey claimed the OCI didn't have "any input into the carding scheme, the programmes, or the decisions made", and "it would better if there was a consultation process".

That sub-committee, however, was established by the Irish Institute of Sport to review the carding scheme, which the institute are due to take over from 2009-2012.

"The scheme is being reviewed, and I am having some input into that," said Martin. "But the OCI haven't had any input up to this point, because the vehicle wasn't there. But that input will be there."

Hickey had also raised concerns about the system of funding, on the basis that Olympic boxer Paddy Barnes was last year overlooked. Treacy responded by claiming Barnes did benefit from the coaching and training structures of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association.

"Paddy Barnes was part of the high-performance group, and got the benefits of the coaching and the training camps. But if anyone followed his career over the last 12 months, he emerged very suddenly. You can never make a provision for someone coming through late in the day.

"He mightn't have been getting direct funding from us, but he was benefiting from structures that were put in place.

"We do our best, work with the governing bodies to ensure we're identifying the right people. So if Pat Hickey is criticising us, he's off criticising the NGBs."

The core funding of €11.91 million represents an increase of 4.5 per cent on 2007 (€11.4 million), and while most NGBs have seen a slight increase on last year, four received no increase, and three were in fact cut.

The NGBs rely on this funding, essentially, to run their sport from one year to the next, including all administration, coaching and development programmes; without such support, most simply wouldn't survive.

Special Olympics Ireland is easily the best funded NGB, receiving €2,849,188 in core funding, plus €59,000 for their women in sport programme. Next best is Athletics Ireland, who received €1,300,048, with some of the other main paycheques going to Basketball Ireland (€650,050), Swim Ireland (€640,000) and the Irish Cricket Union (€450,000).

It had been suggested either the NGB core funding or the carding scheme would somehow be hit by the Government's new commitment to a GAA player grant, but Treacy and Minister for Sport Brennan denied this was the case. The ISC's overall budget for 2008 is €57.3 million, up from €54.02 million in 2007.

"We knew this year it was going to be a tighter budget," added Treacy. "Every government department and agency is under tight constraints at the moment. But our overall budget is still up on last year, and we're satisfied with where we are.

"But the money that came through for the GAA grants was extra funding, specifically earmarked for that. It has no impact on either these grants or the high-performance grants. If you look at the increases the NGBs have got in recent years for their high-performance programmes, this grant aid is going up all the time.

"The investment that has been made is tremendous. We still have a long way to go, but I think we've learned from other countries, and if you're a track and field athlete or a boxer in Ireland now, all the type of funding and coaching you could want is there."

The Minister was equally adamant the GAA grants had no bearing on the overall funds. "Not at all, because that is a separate scheme completely. I hope that scheme, which we have (been) concluding with the GAA and the GPA, can be successfully brought to a conclusion. We had some very good talks, and agreed on a mechanism. The ball is with the GAA now to conclude their side of it, and to get on and start to administer the scheme. Hopefully we can do that soon."

Two NGBs - the judo and clay pigeon associations - were not included in the funding as they still have to agree criteria for 2008, and separate funding also has to be finalised for Horse Sport Ireland.