€150,000 grant for wealthy private school’s hockey pitch is another own goal by Ross
IHOPE you, like me, downed a few glasses of Champagne this week to join Minister Shane Ross in celebrating the awarding of a €150,000 grant to elite private school Wesley College to resurface one of its four hockey pitches.
The Sports Minister took to Twitter to share his delight in the good fortune of the school, which happens to be in his own constituency.
Finally, the young people of south County Dublin are getting a worldclass pitch on which to practise their short corners.
You might not share my enthusiasm, but perhaps you’re not familiar with the school. I’ve been there countless times for school matches – they always trounced us – and it’s a beautiful place with facilities to die for. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the school website’s own description of its general excellence: “We are fortunate to have superb sporting facilities to ensure that all of our students have this opportunity to achieve their full potential and enjoy their sport in a spacious and well laid out sporting campus.”
Those facilities include four rugby pitches, a floodlit rugby grid, one soccer pitch, two fullsize astroturf hockey pitches, two mini hockey pitches, two full-size grit hockey pitches, 16 tennis courts, two outdoor basketball courts, a gym, a sports hall and an athletics track.
Now, all of this might seem a bit peculiar. Isn’t the stated aim of the Sports Capital Grants to improve facilities for the disadvantaged? Aren’t there countless schools around the country who have prefabs for classrooms and not so much as a basketball court to their name? And with 930 students paying fees of more than €6,000 a year, couldn’t Wesley have somehow found the cash itself ?
Don’t be silly. There is actually nothing to see here – everything has been done totally in accordance with the rules. You see, the rules say that a school – private or otherwise – can apply for funding if they do so with a community group, and the local YMCA Hockey Club uses the Wesley pitch outside of school hours so they applied for the funding jointly. Isn’t community a great thing altogether?
And there’s a strict set of criteria which you have to meet to get funding, which Wesley didn’t meet on the first attempt when it was refused back in November. But it didn’t give up. In true sporting fashion, the school appealed, and its persistence has at last paid off. As for the schools around the country complaining they don’t have a square inch of playground, let alone acres of playing fields, well, the Sports Capital Grant is open to anyone with the wherewithal to fill out the tricky forms and who knows when, where and how to apply and can prove that they have somewhere to put the facilities in the first place.
And the really, really clever part about the grant is that the more money applicants can raise themselves, the more favourably the Government will view their application. So if you’re, say, a community group in Rialto and you’ve only managed to raise a few hundred quid for the local gymnastics club, well, tough. But if you can pony up €100,000 through your well-organised, well-heeled fundraising activities, the Government will reward that go-getter mentality with the maximum amount of €150,000. Nice. Anyway, these Wesley parents are taxpayers too, don’t forget. So they’re entitled to get something back. And, yes, the State subsidises the teaching at private schools, and you might think that the resulting academic advantage over the remaining 93pc of Irish teenagers who attend State schools would be enough. But it’s not. Real winners want the edge on the sports field too, where culture and community and the unbreakable bonds of the old school tie are formed.
I’ve seen firsthand how important all of this is. I went to a private school and these are the things that make the difference: the excellent facilities, the commitment of the staff, the culture, the expectation that you’ll succeed. All intangible elements that give a kid the very best sporting chance of success – on the pitch, and out there in the real world. So three cheers for Minister Ross and for Wesley. They were presented with an open goal, and they didn’t miss it.