National Sports Policy: Ambitious objectives are clear

Behind all the policy, the politics and the promise to double the Government investment, one thing emerged as certain: the playing of Irish sport is about more than just the game or the end result.

Almost two years in the making, and 10 years since the last policy document expired, the National Sports Policy 2018-2027 reflects all of that. That doubling of Government investment – from the current annual figure of €111 million to €220 million – is one of the standout objectives, but there’s also a greater appreciation of what exactly is at stake.

Clearly the existing investment is not enough. There are other similarly ambitious objectives over the next decade: 57, to be exact, the 2018-2027 policy stretching to 11 chapters, more than 108 pages, and touching on almost every aspect of sport in Ireland. This includes the trebling of annual high performance investment support to some €30 million over the next decade.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin, was also certain about one thing: that €220 million may appear like an aspiration, depending on the economy or who exactly is in Government, but a worthy aspiration nonetheless.

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“You couldn’t plan for anything if that’s the attitude,” said Griffin. “We need to set out a framework as sensibly and reasonably as possible. We want to move away from boom-bust cycle, and I think that this increase in the level of investment will be achievable in any type of ordinary results for the economy.

“When you know investment in sport gives you so many positive returns, across so many areas, by aiming to double it by 2027 is the least we should be doing. Of course it’s easier said than done, it is a substantial increase, but I think it will pay dividends many times over, and I want to see us getting as far down that road as early as possible.”

Dispersed fairly

One timely element of the policy, it seems, is the Government’s intention to prioritise funding for multi-sporting facilities: “The aim with all facilities and the rolling out our infrastructure is to ensure it is dispersed as fairly as possible, and that we give a weighting to disadvantage communities,” added Griffin. “At the same time you can’t overlook the history we’ve had here, these are legacies of the society we had in Ireland, in terms of the politics of sport that prevailed for most of the 20th century, so it’s not so easy too just changes that overnight.”

The policy is broken down in 57 specific “actions”, largely based around increasing participation, improving the sporting infrastructure, and maximising the high-performance achievement of elite Irish athletes.

In the short term, this will see €1.5 million allocated to support Tokyo 2020 preparations as part of a longer-term drive to treble the level of support to match comparator nations like New Zealand; there will be an immediate acceleration of Women in Sport Programme, double annual funding provision to €2 million; there will also be a dedicated €1 million programme for Disability Sport through the deployment of a Sport Inclusion Disability Officer in all 26 Local Sport Partnership’s countrywide.

The much-maligned Sports Capital Programme has already been shaken up in terms of the application process: this will become an annual fund, and “the scoring system and assessment process for the Sports Capital Programme will be reviewed to ensure that the programme is achieving objectives in line with this National Sports Policy”.

Shake-up

There will also be a shake-up in the elite and high-performance end. The policy calls for more targeted high-performance funding to deliver more Olympic/Paralympic medals (13 in 2016 to 20 in 2028), and also for funding to be provided on multi-annual basis, based on Olympic cycles. Essentially, increased funding to be targeted at fewer sports for more medals.

“An estimated €1.5 billion cost to our annual health budget due to physical inactivity indicates the scale of the financial benefit to be gained,” added Minister for Sport, Shane Ross. “The benefits of sport and physical activity to physical and mental health are well proven.”

Interestingly, the policy suggests a move to make anti-doping in Irish sport independent of Sport Ireland: “Ireland sees an emerging requirement for the anti-doping system to be seen as independent of the system that supports and funds the achievement of excellence in sport. The trend internationally is for the establishment of an agency, separate to the sports development agency, to regulate anti-doping matters. We commit to a detailed consideration of this issue in the first two years of the policy.”