Irish Sports Council High Performance Awards Live Coverage

Sparks

Kevin Kilty (ICPSA High Performance Director) is covering the ISC HP Awards on twitter:

# Gary Keegan introducing the institute of sport and what it can do for sports

# €2.6m being spent on athlete carding grants

# It's seems shooting will be treated on an athlete by athlete basis. Setting up institutes of one

# Finbarr Kirwan speaking on councils approach to planning

# €5.12 million total investment in up sports

# Spell checker driving me nuts

# That should be Katie, not Marie, spell checker got I'm the way

# Marie Taylor and the boxers are here. Sitting with Derek Burnett and the @olympiccouncil

# Ccongrats to athletics for recent sucess in Europeans

# @olympiccouncil here also. Opening speech from Ossie Killenny

# At the Irish sports council high performance awards. Shooting is taking a 50% cut? Others not too bad.

Follow it:
http://twitter.com/kkilty
http://twitter.com/olympiccouncil

Sparks

More. Must see if I can rig twitter to post to here somehow for things liek these.

Delivery of programmes for coaches and techical support staff, career development and cpd

Sparks

More bad news:

# Multi annual funding has been refused

# Is sport a soft option in these economic times, yes we have to justify necessity of sport

# Q&A session with the media now

# Delivery of programmes for coaches and techical support staff, career development and cpd

Sparks

And...

# All over time to go back to work

# Abbotstown being discussed, money is just not there

# Programme side for institute of sport is 500k

Sparks

So basicly shooting just got the shaft, with a 50% cut in funding, which no other sport has gotten, despite winning a silver in the World Championships and a track record of high performance internationally.
Wonderful.

It wasn't me!

It's ridiculous that not only are we associated with every drug-dealing scumbag in the country by virtue of our possession of firearms, but our funding to effectively represent our country to the high levels we've come to achieve is disappearing now, despite our good record. It's difficult to see how this can come to pass really.

Sparks

From their Press Release:

IRISH SPORTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES €7.4 MILLION PACKAGE

16 sports bodies will receive €5.12 million for their high performance plans
263 athletes and 5 teams will receive €2.26 million under the Carding Scheme

Details of the investment in high performance sport for 2009 have been announced today. It will be
an important year as there are a number of important events, including world championships in
boxing, swimming, athletics, cycling and rowing, as well as being the first in the four year cycle in
advance of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The support structure provided by the Irish Sports Council has three pillars. There is investment in
Performance Plans developed and implemented by the target sports to cover every aspect of the
training and competition at elite level from junior to world class athletes. The International Carding
Scheme is a direct payment to athletes to support their commitment to full time sport. The Institute of
Sport, operating at Abbotstown as a sub-committee of the Council, will deliver programmes to
athletes and coaches in scientific, medical, coaching and lifestyle supports.

Following great success in 2008 boxing was the big winner with €1.1 million invested in high
performance in 2009. Cricket will receive support for a Performance Plan for the first time following
the progress made at the World Cup in 2007 and retaining the ICC Trophy in 2008.

The International Carding Scheme is well established and remains a central pillar of the support
system. It comprises 263 athletes and 5 teams from junior to contracted world class supported in 2009
with 12 contracted s and 25 world class athletes. Athletes who performed well in Turin at the weekend
are elevated with Mary Cullen at World Class and Kelly Proper at International Class for the first
time.

This grant scheme is augmented by Performance Plans consisting of sport specific elite campaigns
from junior to world class and resourced by the Irish Sports Council. Designed and implemented by a
Performance Director, the plans cover training camps, competition requirements, coaching, sports
science & medical support and equipment requirements. Performance Directors ensure that the
Carding Scheme and Performance Plans are complementary and, overseeing both schemes, support
elite athletes are supported in financial and non-financial aspects of their programmes.

Ossie Kilkenny, Chairman of the Irish Sport Council commented: "Minister Cullen, and the
Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, are very supportive of our ongoing efforts to develop the high
performance system. The Council thanks them for their efforts and is delighted to be in a position to
invest substantially in high performance sport in 2009".

Mr. Martin Cullen, TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said, "The 263 athletes and five teams
supported directly under the Carding Scheme and the additional support for their National Governing
Bodies (NGB) high performance plans, are crucial for everyone as they prepare for and participate in
their sport at major international events during 2009. It is appropriate and important that this
investment is continued."

John Treacy, Chief Executive of the Irish Sports Council, speaking at
the event, said "2008 was a very successful year for Irish high performance sport with Olympic, Paralympic, World and European
success, as well as the fantastic achievements in golf and cricket. As we build the high performance
infrastructure in Ireland, we see sustainable and repeatable success across a number of sports. We
believe that this represents a real return on State investment in elite
sport".

The Irish Sports Council recently published the Quadrennial High Performance Review, known as the
Beijing Review. That document made a series of recommendations for the improvement of the high
performance system in Ireland. The Council accepted the findings of the Review and has begun the
process of implementing all the recommendations which are relevant to its operations.

The Council has not made a final decision on the Performance Plan for AAI. €5.118 million will be
invested in Performance Plans in 2009. The equivalent expenditure in 2008 was €5.35 million. €2.26
million will be allocated to athletes and teams under the Carding
Scheme in 2009: the outturn in 2008
from the Scheme was €2.7 million.

Notes: AAI received €681,000 in 2008 for the Performance Plan.

Further information from
Paul McDermott Irish Sports Council 087-648629

Sport|2009 Performance Plan
Badminton (BI)|€140,000
Boxing (IABA)|€670.000
Canoeing (ICU)|€250.000
Cricket (CI)|€50.000
Cycling (CI)|€445,000
Golf (GUI)|€330,000
Golf Ladies (ILGU)|€118,000
Hockey (IHA)|€525.000
Horsesport (HI)|€600,000
Rowing (IARU)|€450,000
Sailing (SA)|€450.000
Clay Pigeon Shooting (ICPSA)|€ 60,000
Swimming (SI)|€400.000
Tennis (TI)|€180.000
Triathlon (TI)|€ 50.000
Paralympics (PCI)|€400,000
Total|€5,118,000

Philip and Derek weren't even given the top level grant from what I can see. Apparently coming second in the World Championships doesn't mean much if you're a shooter :mad:

Sparks

High Performance Allocations
Carding Grant Allocations

It wasn't me!

Ridiculously small sums for the shooters, and diddly-nothing for us. Humbug.

Sparks

Well we can't get carding at the moment because the NTSA withdrew from the SSAI; the ISC only recognises the SSAI at present and the Carding Grant criteria specifically permit only Olympic shooters.
So until that whole mess is fixed, noone can get a Carding grant for rifle or pistol shooting.

It wasn't me!

Indeed. Let's hope that particular squidgy mess is cleaned up sharpish, or we'll have no funding at all.

Sparks

From the ICPSA website:

Irish Sports Council announce performance funding for the ICPSA

The Irish Sports Council today announced over €115,000 in performance and carding awards to the ICPSA High Performance Programme.

Attending the announcement on behalf of the ICPSA were High Performance Programme Director Kevin Kilty and 3-time Olympian, Derek Burnett.

Kevin stated that "These announcements come against a background of great economic difficulty and to see the ICPSA High Performance Programme continuing with the cooperation of the Irish Sports Council is something that we welcome."

The ICPSA also welcomes the news that new programme member Geoffrey Galbally joins the ranks of the ICPSA's carded athletes through the award of a grant of €3,000.

In total the carding awards to the ICPSA were:

* Philip Murphy (World Class Category) €20,000
* Derek Burnett (World Class Category) €20,000
* Colin Tanner (International Category) €12,000
* Geoffrey Galbally (Junior Category) €3,000

The ICPSA High Performance Programme received a direct grant of €60,000 for the 2009 season.

Sparks

Money Matters:

Today saw the Irish Sports Council announce its funding for the High Performance Awards and the Carding Grants Scheme. These two grant schemes go to the governing body of the sport to run a high performance training and competitive programme, and to the athletes to take part in that programme, respectively. The idea is simple; you want medals, you have to be the best - and if you want to be the best, you have to do certain things, which cost money. So the ISC puts in money and gets out medals. Hurrah.

And how could this not go well for us? In the last decade or so, Irish shooting has produced a wealth of medals. ISSF shotgun under the ICPSA and the direction of Kevin Kilty, has seen shooters like Derek Burnett, David Malone and Philip Murphy and others all bring home international medals from the acme of shooting competitions. Ireland won the team gold medal in the ISSF World Championships for the Trap Shotgun event in 2002, and in 2007 Philip Murphy took the silver individual medal. There has been a host of gold and silver and bronze medals won in both team and individual events at ISSF World Cup level and at ISSF Continental Championships level, not to mention all the smaller international competitions. Right now there are four ISSF shotgun shooters ranked in the top 100 shooters in the world; only a few months back Derek Burnett was ranked 5th. This is an excellent competitive placing internationally, it’s exactly what the ISC wants to see. So a well-funded programme, right?

Try a 50% cut in High Performance funding. €60k to the programme, €20k to Philip and Derek and €10k and €3k to two others.

The inner cynic in me ponders the public image shooting has received in the Irish Times of late, and wonders if maybe the media monitoring unit in the Irish Sports Council is basically creating a control mechanism over the funding of Irish Sport for the Irish Times Sports Editor…

Look, money does matter. No point pretending otherwise. The average industrial wage in this country is €32k - if you can’t make that while representing your country, then most people aren’t going to prioritise sport. And there are certain things you just cannot do without it - right now, for example, the ICPSA can’t hire its preferred sports psychologist, but are meant to compete at a level where the mental game is 90% of winning. They can’t hire the sports physiotherapist they want, even though we now know we lost a potential medal in athletics to a simple physical ailment one runner had picked up. They can’t hire a dedicated coach, the performance director has to pull double duty even though the logistics is a job of its own (I know this, becuase I have that job in the NTSA and it is not something you can do every third tuesday like getting a haircut, it’s a fulltime thing even with a small squad).

But the Minister will be spending €5,000 on a first class ticket to Austin, Texas for St.Patrick’s day. That’s nearly two years worth of a Junior grant, for those keeping score.

And ISSF rifle or pistol shooting? Well, now that the NTSA has left the SSAI, the ISC is saying it shouldn’t recognise us, that suddenly there’s a rule of one NGB to one sport - yet the ICPSA is recognised seperately from the SSAI, the Olympic Judo and Olympic TaeKwonDo governing bodies are recognised seperately from the Martial Arts Federation and there’s no instance of the rule in writing before now. So for now, no support for the NGB. And while the ISC says they’ll look after athletes seperately if the NGB isn’t in place, that won’t happen here because the Juniors are the only ones with achievable criteria for the grant, and their grant is specifically handled through the governing body, whom the ISC won’t talk to; and the SSAI can’t even apply because the criteria say it can only be olympic shooters who apply.

What a mess.

Sparks

ISC website copy of the press release

trapmando

yeah it's a very poor reflection on shooting given the amount of money given to other sports. Shooting's 60K sticks out like a sore thumb. I mean Golf, 450K? surely in a sport awash with money they could fund this themselves. Most other sports (that have far less success than shooting) seems to have got 10 times what shooting got...it's a joke!

Is there anything that can be done about this?