Lolly hockey sticks in the craw as poor get nothing
WHY are people shocked €150,000 of taxpayers’ money went to an elite fee-paying school with amazing facilities, allowing them to resurface their hockey pitch?
And so what if a private golf club which charges members eight grand to join also gets €150,000 of our money so our betters can better their handicap? Anyone over the age of 18 who has lived more than five years in this country and with even a passing interest in current affairs has no right to be shocked. This is the norm. On the other hand, Counsel GAA club was awarded €624 had little Ballynacargy Boxing club – none of which would cover a TD’S received the €150,000 maximum grant weekly expenses. gifted to posh Wesley college, where You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes annual fees begin at €6,250, the public to see a pattern in which private clubs would have every reason to be stunned. and schools are getting most of the loot.
The little boxing club in Co Westmeath Why could this possibly be when received not a single cent from these grants are supposed to help the latest round of the Sports Capital voluntary community sports groups Grants Programme after applying for and not to look after the likes of Wesley help to fix up its clubhouse. College, Ireland’s equivalent of Eton or
Not so for exclusive Malahide Golf Harrow public schools in England? Club, which received the Ask yourself, what’s the maximum €150,000 grant chance of someone from a even though it’s a private deprived area club which charges ever going to members €8,400 to join. Wesley or
In total, golf clubs benefitted joining a top from almost €2million golf club? in funding from the Sports Very little – Capital Programme. and that’s the
You’d almost think way the establishment someone was trying to curry wants it to stay. favour with golfers. Just as the Government
Shane Ross
If you think that’s a racket, was trying to convince us didn’t Sutton and Glenageary lawn the country is flying as the health tennis clubs get €90,842 and €43,698 service disintegrates and the homeless respectively. crisis goes from bad to worse, Fine Gael Dalkey Scuba Divers also did is now trying to buy votes by targeting swimmingly, receiving €52,379 while the better off.
Portmarnock Sports and Leisure What’s the point in wasting cash on Club netted €51,561. little boxing and athletic clubs in
On the other hand the State deprived areas when there’s nothing in didn’t bend over backwards to it for them? help youngsters at the Fatima They say we don’t have a class system Gymnastics Project in Dublin’s in this country but we do and it’s even inner city which received the more insidious than across the water. princely sum of €489. Those who need it least get the most
Ballyfermot Youth Service while those who need it most get the was given a pittance of €572 least. It’s the same reason you pay half and Drimnagh’s Good your wages in tax while the companies owned by those members of the elite golf clubs and private schools pay almost none.
Minister Shane Ross boasting that Wesley College had got our money spoilt the rugby for me last Saturday and I made sure Dublin Live exposed this pompous buffoon.
He tweeted: “Delighted to confirm that @wesleycollege has been granted €150,000 as part of Sports Capital Programme. The funding will ensure the resurfacing of the hockey pitch and will benefit the school as well.”
What Lord Ross is actually saying is, “Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Can’t say it has anything to do with me but, well, you know. Plenty of lolly for jolly hockey sticks and all that”.
Lord Ross was also pleased to announce jollies for the hockey pitch at Loreto Beaufort which will benefit from another €150,000 of our money.
Not surprisingly applications for both of these schools though initially rejected were later awarded through the appeals process. Need I say more?
Parents whose children have little or no sports facilities will be horrified youngsters with the very best are getting more.
They might well ask what they are doing wrong and the answer is nothing. They just don’t know the right people, didn’t go to the right school or couldn’t afford to join the right club.
And if it’s left to the likes of Fine Gael and Shane Ross, that’s the way it’ll stay in the Republic of Inequality.
They say we don’t have a class system here. We do.