The lack of planning and structure in the Government's spending on sport was highlighted last year by one of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken on all aspects of sport in the Republic.
Commissioned by the then Minister of Sport, Bernard Allen, and drawn up by the Department of Education, Targeting Sporting Change In Ireland 1997-2006 is largely an aspirational document which looks at the problems associated with sport in Ireland under the headings of education, training, funding, facilities, development and strategy. The overall thrust of the 109page document is that there is a piecemeal approach to sport. Funding for facilities and coaching, particularly at community level, comes from a variety of sources such as the National Lottery, Department of Education, Department of Environment, EU Operational Programme for Tourism, local authority and the private sector. There are no structured links between these diverse funding groups, and the partnerships are not clear - in short, the study states that strategic planning is needed for the development of all sports facilities in the Republic. Such a plan is seen as an immediate priority.
John Treacy, head of the Irish Sports Council, acknowledges the weaknesses but insists that things are now moving in the right direction. "A structure needs to be put in place and more work needs to be done. But I think we have moved a long way down the road towards doing that. The co-ordination that needs to be carried out is happening, and the Sports Council will hopefully have moved from being an advisory body to a statutory body by the end of this year. It went through Cabinet a few weeks ago. I think the move towards becoming a statutory body and having a Minister [Jim McDaid] at the Cabinet table indicates that sport is now more important than it used to be."
But a number of urgent problems outlined in the document need to be addressed - public swimming pools, for example, where the need to refurbish outdated facilities has now become a matter of some urgency. A total of 48 public indoor pools were built in the Republic between 1966 and 1974, 32 of them by local authorities. These pools were built according to Department of the Environment guidelines before the oil crisis of 1974.
As a result of "obsolete systems and inadequate maintenance programmes", rapid deterioration has occurred over the years, so a high number of pools are in urgent need of attention. It is likely that between £40 and £50 million will be required for redevelopment up to the year 2000.
Since the National Lottery was started in 1987 more money has been channelled into sport, although not as much as was initially promised. In its first year a total of £2.741 million came from the Lottery, rising to £13.325 million in 1997. This year, according to Treacy, the budget has gone up to £19 million - the highest amount since the Lottery came into being. But while the Lottery money is significant, one of the major findings of the study has been the extent of the role which local authorities play in supporting sport and the importance of their financial contributions.
In fact local authorities, 118 of which are controlled by the Department of the Environment, provide the greatest funding to sport in Ireland. In 1995 combined expenditure on sport and recreation amenities came to £108 million. The figures for capital provision are not available.
Compared to those in other countries, Irish local authorities are not strongly recognised and, according to the Targeting Sporting Change report, they do not have a strategic plan for sport. In Northern Ireland and in Britain local authorities have a clear responsibility to provide sport and leisure services for their communities. Since the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering in the UK in 1991, there has been a distinct improvement in the level and effectiveness of the services provided.
In the UK, the Sports Council is listed as an agency for statutary consultation in all local development. There is a list of sports whose playing fields are protected from development. Ironically, Gaelic football and hurling fields are amongst those protected under legislation while in the Republic no such protection exists.
In Denmark, where local authorities spend £250 million a year on operating sports services, the local authorities are obliged by law to provide minimum standards of sports facilities free to the public. In addition, if members of the public use private facilities they are entitled to a rebate of 75 per cent of the costs from their local authority.
What Irish sport currently lacks is funding and a vision of how that funding is put to use, although the Irish Sports Council, through Treacy and Minister McDaid, now claims to be taking that in hand. Strategic planning and a move away from ad hoc, incremental funding appears to be the favoured path. But Treacy is just starting out.
The change in government since the study was completed last year has inevitably delayed progress in implementing many of the recommendations, although a move to change the way in which elite athletes apply for grants has already taken place. One of the Irish Sports Council's first moves was to fund athletes directly rather than continue with the traditional disbursement of money through the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), a ploy that has triggered a constant war of words between the two organisations.
The task of modernisation, however, appears so enormous that it is likely to take some time to implement wholesale, co-ordinated change. Not until that happens will a comprehensive national picture begin to emerge.
