Solved! The Ross sports cash riddle
Sports Minister says money coming from Irish Aviation Authority
SPORTS Minister Shane Ross has cleared up the mystery over €1.5million in extra funding for Sport Ireland – which he had announced on Monday as the Irish women’s hockey team arrived home.
Mr Ross said the funds are coming from the Irish Aviation Authority, following an agreement made earlier this year.
‘Urgent need for addition funding’ ‘Like winning the Lotto’
SPORTS Minister Shane Ross has said that an extra €1.5million sports funding – which he revealed on the arrival home of the successful Irish women’s hockey team – will come from the Irish Aviation Authority.
His announcement of the extra funding on Monday had been denounced as a PR stunt.
But his department told the Irish Daily Mail yesterday that the €1.5million for Sport Ireland for the Tokyo Olympic Games and World Championship preparations is part of ‘additional funds secured recently’.
His department said that earlier this year, the Minister reached agreement with the board of the Irish Aviation Authority for the payment of an extra €12million dividend to the State.
This is substantially up on the €9.2million dividend the IAA paid to the State last year off the back of €39.5million operating profit in 2016.
‘Following the World Cup performance of the Irish women’s hockey team, the Minister has allocated €1.5milion to Sport Ireland,’ the Minister’s department said.
Last week, Mr Ross agreed with the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe that €6million of the IAA funds will be for Mr Ross’s department.
The Minister himself said in a statement that he made the additional money available ‘following the huge success of our women’s hockey team in the World Cup’.
The money is, he said, for national governing bodies of the various sports preparing for World Athletics Championship 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
And he said: ‘We are aware that there is an urgent need for additional funding for those preparations, particularly in sports where our medal hopes are high and the final preparations are crucial and costly.
‘Sport Ireland are aware that certain sports, including hockey, are in need of additional funding. It has been asked to expedite its process to allocate the additional 2018 funding of €1.5million as soon as possible.’
He said he expects the funding will be used for direct athlete support, competition support, Tokyo camps and preparations, highperformance programmes and equipment.
And he added that he will announce details of the distribution of the €1.5million ‘as soon as possible’, possibly as early as next Monday. This announcement will be, he said, made ‘once the board of Sport Ireland have considered and approved the allocations’.
The Minister’s announcement at Dublin Airport on Monday went down very well with the hockey players around him, all of whom are amateurs. One team member, Yvonne O’Byrne, said it was ‘like winning the Lotto’.
Mr Ross said people have asked how the Government was going to respond to the silver-medal performance at the Hockey World Cup in London. Team members laughed and some shouted: ‘Money, lots of money!’
Some of the team, and their supporters, gasped loudly when Mr Ross announced that he would offer an extra €1.5million for ‘Olympic and world champion preparation and hockey would enjoy a significant share of that’.
Last night, Sport Ireland told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Sport Ireland is grateful for the additional funding for high performance sport, which followed detailed discussion with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Minister.
‘The funding will be immediate and Sport Ireland will go through a process to allocate the funding through the board. Sport Ireland anticipates an announcement will be made shortly.’
Funding received by Sport Ireland from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport for 2018 is €51.6million. Funds for 2019 have not yet been allocated to Sport Ireland, which is the State body in charge of promoting sport. Its remit also includes responsibility for the allocation of funding to the national governing bodies of sport.