Government Funding For Irish Sports Dips For '18

Sport Ireland announced government funding will "dip slightly" in '18, according to Ian O'Riordan of the IRISH TIMES. Sport Ireland, "understandably cautious not to sound ungrateful" to the government, "dressed up" its '18 funding allocation to the various national governing bodies as "effectively similar to last year." On closer inspection, "there is actually a drop off, while select allocations, such as the Women in Sport Programme, remain unchanged for the third successive year." A total €20.7M ($25.9M) is being distributed, just over half of which, €10.8M ($13.5M), goes to core funding for the 57 NGBs, excluding the big three -- the Gaelic Athletic Association, the FA of Ireland and Irish Rugby Football Union (which receive separate funding for participation programs). This is "slightly down" on the '17 amount of €10.86M. Another €7M ($8.7M) goes to the high-performance programs of 21 NGBs, "primarily the Olympic sports, also slightly down" on the '17 amount of €7.25M (IRISH TIMES, 2/1).