Forum: Counting the costs of a cut
Sports Council's chairman says reduction in its €51m budget will hit Olympic prospects hard and 'if we don't keep going, we're removing hope'
Michael Foley
November 14 2010, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
A FEW weeks before the government releases a budget that will make hairshirts feel like fine silk, the Irish Sports Council made their pitch for self-preservation. John Treacy, the Sports Council's chief executive, insisted the publication of last week's report on the economic impact of sport in Ireland was coincidental, but the message was clear. Cut funding and Ireland's Olympic prospects will suffer. The amount available to water the grassroots will reduce from a sprinkle to a drip.
At a time when every investment is examined in minute detail for its potential return, the report demanded attention to the bottom line. Every €100 invested in sport by the government, claimed their figures, yielded €149 in taxes. Is the government getting that type of return from…