Emotional players ‘hopeful’ of long-term funding as Ross announces extra €1.5m for sports teams
AN ADDITIONAL €1.5m is being allocated to high performance sport teams, but the Government has yet to decide how much will be directed to Irish hockey.
Sports Minister Shane Ross made the announcement yesterday as the women’s hockey team returned home following their silver medal triumph at the Hockey World Cup in London.
The minister said the funding would go towards high performance sports teams to aid their preparation for the Olympics and World Championships.
He said a “significant” amount would go towards the hockey team, who the Government sees as Olympic medal hopefuls.
“We haven’t allocated the shares yet but we will be giving some money and a significant amount of the money to hockey, because we are confident that they are now going to be serious competitors for medals in the Olympics,” he explained.
“If you’ve seen the spirit of this team today, and I’ve seen it because I was in London yesterday, you would say it would be absolutely wrong not to support them and we are going to support them.”
He added that the team have “injected an enthusiasm and euphoria and determination” into the sport. “So let’s support it, that’s our job. They’ll bring more credit to the nation hopefully in Tokyo,” he said.
It was clear the announcement meant a lot to the team, with several members of the team becoming overwhelmed with emotion and shedding a tear of joy.
“I think the look on the girls’ faces says it all, it was completely unexpected,” captain Katie Mullan told the Irish Independent.
“Hopefully it’s not just a quick fix. We need to be funded from here on forward if we want to qualify for world cups,” she added.
President of Hockey Ireland Martin Canniffe said he hoped a large sum of the money would go to hockey. “I am just after saying to the minister that I hope we will get the more significant part than the less significant part of that, because we need it badly in our sport.”
He added: “After this performance, we are due to get it and should get it.”
Meanwhile, Fine Gael senator Frank Feighan has called for the stakeholders at Irish Hockey to consider the team playing in the next Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2020.