Sports bodies celebrated yesterday as they emerged from the Finance Bill as some of the few winners, writes Dominic Coyle.

While the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, was concentrating on closing off loopholes, he found time to announce a tax windfall for sports bodies.

Under the Bill, they will not face capital gains tax bills on the sale of land, provided the money stays in the organisation and is used in promoting sports.

The move is seen as a spur to both the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which are considering plans for a joint stadium. Mr Enda Faughnan, head of tax and legal affairs with PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that, before the Budget, sports bodies availed of rollover relief, where capital gains tax could be deferred provided the money was reinvested in similar assets.

"The Budget ended rollover relief and this disadvantaged sporting bodies," said Mr Faughnan. "Under this proposal, they have gained a blanket capital gains tax exemption, leaving them effectively better off than they were originally."

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) president Mr Sean McCague hailed the Minister's "understanding and vision" and said the move was "consistent with his record of investment in sport".

In a statement, he said the beneficiaries of the move would be the "thousands of young people who take up the sport around the country".

A spokesman said the move was welcome as the GAA was a non-profit organisation. Any property it held was not in the names of individuals, but was held by trustees and the GAA did not allow the sale of land unless the money was being reinvested in the organisation.

An IRFU spokesman said the initiative was welcome. "Anything that offers relief to clubs is to be welcomed and this move is applauded by the union," he said.

"When clubs are considering moving downtown, incentives like this make it easier to move and to integrate in the community."

The move may be particularly helpful for the IRFU, which is facing growing debts. It anticipates losses of about €4 million this year, rising to €7 million next and has been weighing up options to cut costs. It is sitting on two very valuable parcels of land - the Lansdowne Road site and 90 acres at Newlands Cross.

Any move to build a stadium jointly with the FAI would allow it to replenish its finances with the sale of one or both sites. The absence of capital gains tax will supplement that.

Another sport affected by the Bill was the equine industry, with the Minister announcing measures that might lead to taxation of the profits of stallion fees at some point in the future.

A spokesman for the horse-breeding industry said it would co-operate with the move "and was happy to do so".

He added that stallion fees accounted for only a small portion of the industry. However, if such fees were to be taxed now under the corporation tax regime, it would bring about €10 million to the Exchequer.