SONIA O'SULLIVAN and Michelle Smith are the two biggest beneficiaries in an enhanced list of individual high performance grants, announced in Dublin yesterday by the Minister for Sport, Bernard Allen.

Each receives £20,000, unchanged from their 1996 allocations, in the annual hand out which, the Minister said, shows a significant increase on other years.

Figures supplied at a press reception show that the total of £520,000 is up by £180,000 on the previous year's grants. Some 149 athletes, from 24 different disciplines, including 40 juniors, will now benefit. In 1996, 90 athletes received grants.

Additionally, 23 athletes will receive grants of £7,500 or more, compared to just nine in the previous year, a decision which, Allen said, took account of the sharply improved standards in Irish sport.

"I believe the increase on figures which have been static for some time reflects our commitment to play our part in ensuring that our sports people can compete on a level playing field," he said.

John Treacy, executive chairman of the Irish Sports Council, said: "This is a natural step towards Sydney 2000 and beyond. I'm delighted that we are rewarding the best of our junior sports people as well as those who have already made their mark at senior level."

If O'Sullivan and Smith, two of Ireland's best known athletes, again top the list on £20,000, there are a number of significant changes in funding lower down the order.

Catherina McKiernan and Nick Sweeney, who will get £15,000, will each receive £5,000 less than they did 12 months ago, whereas Susan Smith, who received minimal support last year, will benefit to the extent of £10,000 this time.

Niall Bruton's funding is down to £5,000 but Sinead Delahunty, who has produced some fine performances in America without ever reproducing that form in Europe, goes up to £7,500.

Boxing, as ever, is well supported. Two Ulster men, Damaen Kelly and Brian Magee, who got to the quarterfinals of the Olympic championships in Atlanta, top the list on £15,000. Francis Barrett will be subsidised to a limit of £10,000.

The coxless fours crew of Neville Maxwell, Tony O'Connor, Derek Holland and Sam Lynch, who only just finished out of the medals in Atlanta, will each receive £12,500, £5,000 more than three other international oarsmen, Niall O'Toole, Gearoid Towey and Brendan Dolan.

Ian Wiley, another who competed with distinction in the Olympic games, will be the best supported canoeist on £15,000, just ahead of Michael Corcoran and Gary Mawer (£10,000). Grants of £10,000 will be made to Aisling Bowman and Derek Ryan, in sailing and squash respectively.

The announcement of the high performance grants came less than 24 hours after the role of the Olympic Council of Ireland, as the conduit for State funding in sport, was terminated at a meeting with the Minister for Sport.

Wednesday's meeting, sought by the Olympic Council of Ireland, lasted just a matter of minutes, with the Minister informing the president of the council, Pat Hickey, of his decision to fund the national federations directly and Hickey handing him a letter, outlining the OCI's grievances.

Speaking at yesterday's reception, Allen again requested that the OCI should involve itself in the high performances grants committee, but he emphatically rejected Hickey's accusations that he was politicising spoil.

"I'm not in sport for political gain," he said. "I'm there because I have a responsibility to the national federations and the competitors. It is therefore an insult to me and, more importantly, an insult to the chief executive of the Sports Council, John Treacy, to say that I'm a political master."

Referring to Hickey's charges that the OCI had not been consulted in the decision making process of the high performance committee, Treacy said that he had written on three occasions to the OCI, without success.

Hickey yesterday published the contents of the letter he had handed to the Minister. In it2 he again charges that the alterations in the existing funding arrangements had been made without reference to his council.

He alleges that implementation of the National Plan for Sport will divert £1.6 million of public monies from athletes into the administrative functions which have, until now, been undertaken by volunteers.

Stating that sections of the sports strategy report are contrary to the Treaty of Rome, he indicated that the OCI intends to pursue means of legal redress.