Manifestos not too bad on sports policy
Damian Stack
government is formed post-election, you’d hope that the in-coming government would take some of these ideas on board, even if they’re not their own.
The one through-line across the political spectrum – from Fine Gael to People Before Profit – is a commitment to increasing participation rates. Fine Gael wants to increase sporting participation in the adult population from the current 43% to 50% over the life of the next government, and will dramatically increase funding for sports to do so. Fine Gael also emphasises the importance of Physical Education in schools and say they will deliver a “PE build and modernisation programme”.
Fianna Fáil, meanwhile, talks about “the spirit of volunteerism” and pledge local government support for it. Some of what’s proposed is a little woolly and ill-defined, but there are a lot of concrete proposals too, as the Fianna Fáil pledge for a €5 million a year playground building fund shows.
Possibly one of the more interesting proposals in any of the manifestos is Fianna Fáil’s proposal for unused state land: “under this mechanism a council, Voluntary Housing Association or community sports group may put forward a Community Right to reclaim requestion to the Minister for Housing (...) for a decision.”
The Social Democrats propose to “introduce a new
PBP’s most interesting policy proposal is to legislate to give fans control over the running of clubs
requirement that all planning authorities must publish a sport and recreation facilities strategy as part of their development plan process” and that “planning for pitches and facilities would be incorporated into each major planning application, Local Area Plan and all other development projects”.
These are, to our mind at least, sensible proposals. They’re also very on brand for each of the parties. A lot of the proposals are. Fine Gael make big play out of the Ryder Cup coming to Adare in 2023, for instance, and say that they “are open to a bid for a future Rugby World Cup”.
The Green Party’s biggest emphasis is on cycling and greenways and “clean water to swim in”. People Before Profit urge investment in “affordable public gyms” and mirror the
Green’s proposals on cycle lanes.
PBP’s most interesting policy proposal is to “legislate to give fans control over the running of clubs: Sport should be run by its participants and supporters – not by big business or executives on super salaries; sports grounds should not be sold off by cliques that gain control of clubs,” their manifesto states.
Like we say, totally on brand, but there’s the kernel of something there at the very least. Fans should have a say and should have representation at the upper levels of the teams they support on a weekly basis. Sinn Féin are also certainly on brand with their call “for all-Ireland leagues and teams wherever possible”.
The Labour Party seems to have been the party most influenced by the crisis at the FAI. They “support splitting Irish football into two entities, with the state taking responsibility for funding grassroots underage game”. That’s certainly an eye-catching proposal; how realistic it is is another question. They also pledge to form a new football fund with “one eighth of the Betting Duty receipts” allocated. Labour also say they will “ring-fence part of the Betting Levy to fund animal welfare inspectors to ensure only the highest practice is permitted in any sports or pursuits involving animals such as greyhound racing and horse racing”.
That’s almost certainly in response to the controversy stirred up by the Prime Time Investigates documentary on the greyhound industry. Fine Gael also make mention of this, saying they “will invest in greyhound welfare and re-homing as a priority to ensure adherence to the highest standards”.
There are also pledges across the board to increase female participation in sport – and at governance level as per the Social Democrats – but there are other major issues in sport that don’t get a mention and, probably, the biggest of those is insurance.
To be fair, all the main parties make at least some reference in their manifestos to the insurance crisis to some degree or other. The Greens, for instance, propose to “provide affordable insurance options to arts and culture groups by introducing a State backed indemnity scheme”, which could also apply presumably to sports groups. As we say though overall there’s actually – sorry we probably shouldn’t sound as surprised as we do – a lot of good stuff in these documents. By no means are they perfect and by no means do they address everything you’d like to see addressed but, nevertheless, they’re actually kind of encouraging.
The manifestos are all available on the parties’ websites in PDF format if you want to read more before voting on Saturday.