ISC 2013 Sports Grants

Hard-hitting article in the papers at the weekend on this:-

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/eamonn-sweeney-grants-scheme-lacking-copon-and-consistency-29150394.html

I have to agree with much of his sentiment. Re achievement vs potential, I guess the point is that the criteria are based on past achievements and hence the disquiet as the criteria are not being transparently followed.

I think the whole process has to be looked at to strike a balance between past achievements and future potential. There has to be some way of clearly documenting a set of criteria to cover both. It's unfair to think that an elite athlete should invest 7 or 8 years of their 20s in the sport and can be dropped without a thought once they are past their sell-by date while at the same time, there is a value-for-money argument to be made not to fund athletes who are not going to perform at the same level in the years ahead.

Maybe we need the same concept of ministerial pensions for a hard-working athlete who has been consistently in the high performance rankings for many years - they almost certainly have sacrificed salary gains that they could have made in a regular job throughout their twenties - in many cases for a paltry figure that is less than what they'd get if sitting on their backsides and claiming the dole. Incidentally, could someone on the scheme claim the dole or are they expected to be unavailable for work if on the scheme.

So maybe the 'package' should include for every year you meet the elite targets, you will get x% of that on a declining scale for the following 3 years. I'm sure some highly paid consultant would have the smarts to advise the sports council on such a scheme.