SPORTS FUNDING:CUTTING THE sports budget from its current €51 million a year could cost jobs and will have a negative impact on Irish athletes hoping to win medals at the London Olympic Games.

Speaking at the launch of a report into the value of sport to the economy, Irish Sports Council (ISC) chief executive John Treacy said cuts to the current budget could mean dismantling those things that have taken years to build up in Irish sport and would affect Ireland’s ability to take home medals in London.

“If that investment is reduced, obviously it will have an impact on our medals,” said Treacy. “Of course it will have an impact on our high-performance athletes. It is something we are very concerned about two years out from the London Games.”

Around €12 million goes to high-performance athletes such as Katie Taylor, Ken Egan and Paddy Barnes in boxing and Derval O’Rourke in athletics. While it was difficult to assess whether the mood was one of optimism or resignation, the report’s timing, the council explained, was coincidentally coming out several weeks before the expected recessionary budget.

While any cuts will directly affect the athletes at the elite level, the simple message from the research was that although sport received millions each year from the exchequer, it was a contributor and an asset to the economy, not a drain on fiscal resources.

Carried out by international economic consultants Indecon, the figures show Irish households spend the equivalent of 2 per cent of the overall value of consumer spending on sport and sport-related goods.

The contribution of sport also represents 1.4 per cent of Irish GDP, with the exchequer receiving €149 for every €100 invested.

The €51 million from the State goes towards funding highperformance athletes as well as encouraging participation in activities at national and community level.

As a result of the high levels of participation in sports-related activities the sector is able to support 38,000 full-time jobs, or, over two per cent of the overall level of employment in Ireland. The Government sector, both central and local, accounts for over 6,100 sport-related full-time jobs.

“The impact of sport in Ireland has been under-estimated especially by the policy makers, not just the impact to the economy but also in socio-economic terms,” said William Batt from Indecon.

Chairman of the ISC Kieran Mulvey was more visceral in his reasoning as to why he believed the funding should remain at the current levels.

“If we don’t keep this going, we are removing from the people of this country some element of hope,” he said. “Minister, please keep it at €51 million. It has an added value. Write the cheque and we will see that it is used.

“That amount of money isn’t a huge figure in the grand scheme. Fifty one million into 1.7 million people over 60 organisations. Do the maths on that. Look at the return, two per cent of GDP.”

Irish households spend a total of €1,885.6 million in the sports sector. This includes spends on health and fitness, television sport, clothing and footwear and club subscriptions, all of which represents a significant annual return on Government investment. For 2008, it was estimated the net income to the Government sector arising from the sport economy amounted to €304 million.

“Our analysis has only looked at the direct benefits to the Government,” said Batt. “One of the features of Irish sport is that it supports a comparatively higher level of employment than in other jurisdictions.”

Sponsorship in sport has also dropped, although no figures are yet available to measure how much money has disappeared from the sector. In 2009, total sponsorship activity in Ireland amounted to €133 million, of which sports sponsorship represented 57 per cent, or €75 million.

“We understand it has dropped. Obviously the big financial institutions have been big sponsors and they have cut back. There are no figures available yet but anecdotally, it has dropped,” said Batt.

Sport-related spending is 1.4 per cent GDP.

Sport-related spending 2 per cent of consumer spending.

Sport industry supports 38,000 jobs.

Exchequer receives €149 for every 100 invested.

2008 tax take from sport €304.1 million.