Sports and the Election

Lazairus

it is my firm belief , that some sporting organizations are greatly underfunded by the government. That there are Athletes with huge potential ,that have to stay amateur, because of Underfunding .

Now I know the Irish sports council do a great job , God bless the NCTC. but thats not enough.

These sports i'm talking about are the minority sports in Ireland,
I.e Cycling , Running , Rowing , Athletics, Swimming.

it is the case that most serious athletes in the sports mentioned have to go abroad to train

Berite declares that he is a man of sport , on the Ryan Tuberty show recently. But all he talks about is GAA. Now dont get me wrong , I think GAA, gamesand the idea of a national Irish sport is great , but i hate the monopoly
that it holds on the country.

There are clubs that are just scraping through , because of poor investment

so what can we do???


now GAA might be huge , and all , but you cant win an Olympic medal with a hurley or a gaelic ball.so condsider this when your voting!!

hunnymonster

Have the other parties got definite policies to improve the minority sports? BTW, your minority sports are not the really small one's. Tens of thousands of people are involved in athletics.

Lazairus wrote:

.... God bless the NCTC. but thats not enough.

eh? I'v only ahd to deal with the NCTC a couple of times but each case was a nightmare of disorganisation and them not knowing what they were trying to do.

Punchbowl

Well, it doesn't fill me with confidence when a self confessed 'man of sport' seems to care more about 'Man Utd' than local athletic and sporting causes..

Whilst I can understand that he is hedging his bets on investing in Rowing and Cricket et all, his treatment of Athletics, League of Ireland Soccer etc is terrible..

Does Enda play sports?

The Rooster

Minority sports are minority sports for a reason. If people don't support them, why should the government be expected to?

If Irish people suddenly decided en masse that rowing was a great sport and took up a mad interest in it, then government funding would follow fast.

Minority sports (and I'd include league of ireland here, an amazing acheivement of the FAI to make league soccer a minority sport!) need to work on improving their profile and get more people involved - not bleat on about their lack of government handouts.

cavedave

The Green party have talked about right of way access rights to allow walkers get onto hills.
I am not sure their policies are appropriate, they may just antagonise farmers, but they are the only party I have heard talk about this, or indeed any other sporting issue.

Sports are never mentioned as an issue except vague "we need more parks and things for kids to do" and no cost benefit analysis is done. "we will increase hospital beds by 2300" ok what will that increase average lifespan by? How much will it cost? If that money was spent getting people to go for a walk everyday how much would that increase average lifespan and reduce waiting lists by?
The questions that need to be asked might not be quite that simple but instead of always increasing the supply of services are not steps to reduce the demand for them also worth looking at?

MG

The Rooster wrote:

Minority sports are minority sports for a reason. If people don't support them, why should the government be expected to?

If Irish people suddenly decided en masse that rowing was a great sport and took up a mad interest in it, then government funding would follow fast.

Minority sports (and I'd include league of ireland here, an amazing acheivement of the FAI to make league soccer a minority sport!) need to work on improving their profile and get more people involved - not bleat on about their lack of government handouts.

The point which needs to be emphasised is that sports grant funding is set up in a way which favours the major sports and serves to increase the stranglehold of these (especially the GAA). Minority sports find growth difficult under these conditions. This is also true of community multi-functional projects which are unlikely to progress without the explicit support (i.e. control) of the major local club (usually the GAA).