The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr Jim McDaid, has announced the biggest sports budget yet allocated by a Government.

Excluding the Croke Park project, which was given £20 million of Lottery money over three years at the last budget, Dr McDaid has committed a further £3.6 million to sport, taking the total to £19 million, up 46 per cent on last year's amount it was announced yesterday.

The Minister said that he will be making further announcements about new initiatives including a system for supporting high-performance athletes and Ireland's first ever anti-doping programme. A Sports Bill is currently being drafted and funds have been set aside to assist with the restructuring of a small number of sports bodies the Minister said.

According to McDaid, his Department will be giving priority to the build-up to the Sydney Olympics and to groups who are disadvantaged in sport - young people, women, people with disabilities and people who live in disadvantaged areas.

Three major Irish sporting organisations - the GAA, the FAI and the IRFU - have been asked by the Minister to submit plans for the development of their sports in disadvantaged areas. In the past, rugby, in particular, has been criticised for its lack of participation in such areas, although the IRFU claim to have increased the number of schools playing the sport. Funding to these three organisations will take place "on the basis of these proposals" the Minister said. In an effort to establish a more coherent way of funding sport, all grants have been approved under a new allocation system, which replaces the piecemeal way in which money was disbursed since the mid 1980's. One of the main conclusions agreed in last year's "Targeting Sporting Change" document was that sports funding should be much more structured and should involve a greater degree of long-term planning.

Yesterday's announcement claims to benefit sport by enabling money to be allocated early in the year thereby facilitating the various sporting bodies in their planning of events and budgets.

Under the previous system, governing bodies had to make separate applications for grant assistance for a number of different areas including equipment, development, international events and international meetings that such bodies have to attend. Under the new system, a single composite application covers all areas.

It is expected that a new support system for Ireland's top athletes will be announced shortly. This will be drawn up with the Sydney Olympics of 2000 in mind.

The Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA) have not yet been allocated any funds for 1998. This will be reviewed in the context of the Murphy report which was set up to examine child sex abuse within the organisation following allegations made against former Olympic coach George Gibney and the jailing of another Olympic coach, Derry O'Rourke, earlier this year. The Murphy report is expected to be released soon.