Taoiseach’s Mayo village cycling club hits jackpot with Lottery grant

Jawgap

What a great country we live in that a rural club like this can get such money despite having the Taoiseach as a member.......



http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/taoiseachs-mayo-village-cycling-club-hits-jackpot-with-lottery-grant/

The cycling club from the area where Taoiseach Enda Kenny grew up and which named him as an honorary member last year has hit the jackpot with a National Lottery grant.
Islandeady Cycling Club, which has about 100 members, has received a grant of €20,000.

The club was named in a list published in recent days of 120 organisations that received a total of €2.7 million in Lottery grants from the Department of Health.
News that the grant was awarded to the Taoiseach’s club emerged in the national media, with The Sunday Times covering the story under the headline: “Kenny’s cycle club takes unusual route to funding”.

jamesd

Only in Ireland

Lusk_Doyle

jamesd wrote: »

Only in Ireland

Of course. Unless there are other countries with Taoisigh?

Donal55

Why dafuq would any cycling club need 20k?
Seriously?

Lusk_Doyle

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Of course. Unless there are other countries with Taoisigh?

Its just a fancy as Gaeilge name for prime minister so yes there are loads of countries with Prime Ministers

stecleary

Donal55 wrote: »

Why dafuq would any cycling club need 20k?
Seriously?

€20,000/100 = €200 per member

Free summer and winter kits for all. €20k wouldn't last pi$$ing time really if it was used correctly

ednwireland

We're they at the cycling ireland agm that's what I want to know

Wishbone Ash

Begrudgery is alive and well. More power to them. If the Taoiseach was a member of my club, I'd be hoping it would be beneficial to it.

Jawgap

Jawgap wrote: »

What a great country we live in that a rural club like this can get such money despite having the Taoiseach as a member.......



http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/taoiseachs-mayo-village-cycling-club-hits-jackpot-with-lottery-grant/

The cycling club from the area where Taoiseach Enda Kenny grew up and which named him as an honorary member last year has hit the jackpot with a National Lottery grant.
Islandeady Cycling Club, which has about 100 members, has received a grant of €20,000.

The club was named in a list published in recent days of 120 organisations that received a total of €2.7 million in Lottery grants from the Department of Health.
News that the grant was awarded to the Taoiseach’s club emerged in the national media, with The Sunday Times covering the story under the headline: “Kenny’s cycle club takes unusual route to funding”.

Can you expand on this piece, why was it 'unusual' etc? Otherwise I'm not seeing an issue here, unless you're insinuating the club in question got the grant because EK was a member?

Cee-Jay-Cee

It's completely wrong for any cycling club to get money like that. No matter what anyone thinks, cycling clubs are in the main made up of people who are reasonably well off, most have good bikes and plenty of cycling gear and I would doubt very very much if anyone in that club was going without.

There are a massive amount of more deserving causes that the money could have been given to like organisations for the less well off, homeless, injured/ill etc etc cycling clubs do not need money like that!

jamesd

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Can you expand on this piece, why was it 'unusual' etc? Otherwise I'm not seeing an issue here, unless you're insinuating the club in question got the grant because EK was a member?

It's unusual because it's the first cycling club in Ireland to get this grant. If you think they got it because of EK then that's up to you and others can have their own opinions.
From reading the article and here yes I think they got it some way because he is a member, I don't begrudge them though as nice for a cycling club to get it anyways but I don't see why a cycling club would need a grant this size or want a grant this size.

FortySeven

Are they saving to build a velodrome in castlebar?

What the hell do cyclists need with a grant? Will they be the first club with a safety car?

CramCycle

Shock f*cin horror. Cycling club with members who dared to try and use a legitimate but probably not often used by cycling clubs route to funding succeeded. Truth is there are probably very few cycling clubs who tried this route before. Hopefully it will inspire some to try it out.

Maybe an taoisigh and his staff recommended it as a route, certainly does not make them guilty of anything. I am only annoyed that I never thought of it as I know several GAA clubs who have been successful. It just never occurred to me that it would be worth pursuing. I certainly will push my club to look athrough it next year.

12 element

Enda Kenny is a member of Castlebar cycling club not Islandeady. He used to be anyway!

CramCycle

FortySeven wrote: »

Are they saving to build a velodrome in castlebar?

What the hell do cyclists need with a grant? Will they be the first club with a safety car?

Several clubs have either safety cars or support vehicles. Some through sponsorship, some through club funds and other through members donating their own cars but please, continue.

magicbastarder

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

It's completely wrong for any cycling club to get money like that. No matter what anyone thinks, cycling clubs are in the main made up of people who are reasonably well off, most have good bikes and plenty of cycling gear and I would doubt very very much if anyone in that club was going without.

There are a massive amount of more deserving causes that the money could have been given to like organisations for the less well off, homeless, injured/ill etc etc cycling clubs do not need money like that!

a portion of national lottery money is dedicated to sport, afaik. there's no harm in one sense in spending money if it will entice people to cycle, but without further detail i don't know how giving money to a cycling club will achieve that aim.

a friend used to be involved in a junior rugby club (as in junior leagues, not junior age groups) and their lottery funding came with conditions, one being they had to build an all weather soccer pitch to diversify what benefit to the community was delivered.

FortySeven

CramCycle wrote: »

Several clubs have either safety cars or support vehicles. Some through sponsorship, some through club funds and other through members donating their own cars but please, continue.

I'm sure they do but a small club in Mayo?

ThisRegard

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

organisations for the less well off, homeless, injured/ill etc etc

They normally fall outside of money set aside for sports grants.

CramCycle

70+ riders in their first year. Not that small. If I was suspicious of anything it's that the RSA supplied their club jersey.

As mentioned above, EK is not even a member. Someone at a meeting had a damn good idea. It worked. The rest is just paper not refusing ink.

Jawgap

Deedsie wrote: »

With all the issues of cronyism, nepotism, wasted Tax payers money, and general unfairness in Irish society I would actually consider a recreational cycling club getting a lift one of the more positive corruption stories I have heard.

To be honest having worked in the PS this is the type of stuff that used to drive me nuts.

I wasn't involved in lottery allocations but I did deal with grant allocations for other work/projects and when the call came from 'de Monister's' office and it led to someone or some organisation deserving a grant getting bumped in favour of someone associates with a politician it was quite dispiriting.

Anyway, plenty seem not to have a problem with it so I suppose the system will rumble on as it always has.

Good luck to the club and I hope they get a bump in membership and the money help takes them to the next level, but one wonders who got bumped so Enda could play fairy godfather?

Lumen

I'm amused at the idea of "good corruption". Everyone thinks their own cause is righteous.

Does anyone have any actual facts about how these grants are awarded?

Phoebas

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you expand on this piece, why was it 'unusual' etc? Otherwise I'm not seeing an issue here, unless you're insinuating the club in question got the grant because EK was a member?

Insinuating?

Jawgap is more than 'insinuating'. He's perfectly clear that the whole system has set aside 'on the whim of a politician'.

The evidence is overwhelming - that area of the country is represented by a politician.

Jawgap wrote: »

I'd say a lot of clubs pulling grant applications together and going through endless rounds of applying for money are just wondering what's the point when the whole system can be set aside on the whim of a politician.

uck51js9zml2yt

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

It's completely wrong for any cycling club to get money like that. No matter what anyone thinks, cycling clubs are in the main made up of people who are reasonably well off,

!

Do you go in for generalisations much?

Chuchote

I wonder what their application was based on. If, for instance, they wanted to buy bikes for kids who couldn't afford them and train with the kids every weekend, I'd be all for it.
Has any researcher ever done a study on how or whether grants flow from county to county depending on who's in power - did Offaly get an unusually large flow of grants for sports, farming, roads, etc a few years ago compared to now, did Clare get an especially good crack of the whip when de Valera was Taoiseach, etc. It would be interesting, if fiddly to get all the records.
It would also be interesting to see if this is reflected in other countries - and if so, whether it was more so in some kind of democracies than in others: will grants flow to Le Mans if Fillon wins in France, or to Neuilly if Le Pen wins, or to Amiens if Macron wins?

Jawgap

Lumen wrote: »

I'm amused at the idea of "good corruption". Everyone thinks their own cause is righteous.

Does anyone have any actual facts about how these grants are awarded?

I'll freely admit to not having the first clue about how lottery grants are disbursed.

Previously, I was involved in disbursing grants to SMEs and community organisations.

In that system, there was a fixed pot of money. People applied through a fairly lengthy and bureaucratic process that included them citing the justification for the grant and providing supporting info.

The applications were assessed and scored using a pre-agreed system then the pot was divided accordingly, unless there was a political intervention that just blew the whole thing out of the water!

But I'm sure this didn't happen in this case and it's purely coincidental that a club in the Taoiseach's constituency got a grant from a fund never accessed by a sports club previously.

ednwireland

The only thing I know was that an awful lot of lottery grants were awarded round donegal when mcdaid was sports minister. Not so much when coughlan was a minister (in fact it's one of the things a lot of people give out about her)

Phoebas

Jawgap wrote: »

But I'm sure this didn't happen in this case and it's purely coincidental that a club in the Taoiseach's constituency got a grant from a fund never accessed by a sports club previously.

The Roscommon Sports Partnership, St. Mary's GAA in Wexford?

Chuchote

I've heard of roads and even a pier in the west attributed to one politician.

smacl

ThisRegard wrote: »

They normally fall outside of money set aside for sports grants.

Except from what I've read it wasn't a sports grant, it was a health grant. From the article;

The headline points to the fact that Department of Health grants from Lottery monies are intended to fund the provision of health related services.

According to the dept of health, the money is for exercise equipment to improve health of the community;

Times article wrote:

The department said the money given to Islandeady will be used “to fund exercise equipment to help provide quality health and wellbeing programmes for members and the wider community”.

So no new jerseys or support car, looks like it should be spent on spinning bikes Personally, I'm all for the government spending money to encourage the population to engage in more exercise and would be interested to see if many other such clubs manage to avail of the grant. Gombeen politics no doubt, but rather a few spinning machines available to the community than some fresh tarmac on the local TDs driveway.

Beasty

Don't know the facts here, but €20k would not be excessive for some kind of capital grant. Not many clubs have "clubhouses/storage facilities" but maybe they are looking at something that will benefit the club over an extended period.

I have looked at the possibility of a grant for my own club. Not got round to applying yet, but the idea would be to get something from the local council to help fund a few bikes for kids within the club. However would be thinking more along the lines of something like €2,000 with an equivalent amount from the club. I could certainly see the grant option being attractive to disciplines like track and BMX where not only do you need a "home" to participate, but also a fleet available to allow people to give it a go, or help youngsters who may outgrow decent bikes quite quickly.

It's possible in this case that the Taoiseach made the club aware that such grants are available. I would not see any issue with a TD advising their constituents on such matters. Presumably other clubs making similar applications going forward will be looked upon in a similar fashion.

Chuchote

By the same token, wouldn't it be great if there was a Cycle to School scheme on the same terms (for parents' taxes) as the Cycle to Work scheme.

Tabnabs

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

It's completely wrong for any cycling club to get money like that. No matter what anyone thinks, cycling clubs are in the main made up of people who are reasonably well off, most have good bikes and plenty of cycling gear and I would doubt very very much if anyone in that club was going without.

There are a massive amount of more deserving causes that the money could have been given to like organisations for the less well off, homeless, injured/ill etc etc cycling clubs do not need money like that!

This post made me chuckle, this rural cycling club is in the hapenny place. Welcome to the world of sports grants; where elite private members clubs with annual membership fees in excess of €2,000 can access tax payer funding in multiples of what this little club in Mayo got.

The National YC - € 77,902.00
Howth YC - € 77,000.00
Malahide Yacht Club - € 44,149.00

In fact, private member yacht clubs benefited to the tune of half a million in 2014 (http://afloat.ie/resources/news-update/item/25937-dublin-yacht-clubs-receive-top-payouts-in-500k-grants-to-sailing-clubs)

In the case of the National YC, they bought boats that weren't needed and had to send weekly emails out literally begging members to use the boats.

The whole system is screwed by vested interests. It's a gravy train of never ending tax payers money.

Chuchote

Tabnabs wrote: »

The whole system is screwed by vested interests. It's a gravy train of never ending tax payers money.

Writers and artists laugh bitterly at Lottery funding. Originally, all funding was earmarked for the arts.

terrydel

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Begrudgery is alive and well. More power to them. If the Taoiseach was a member of my club, I'd be hoping it would be beneficial to it.

Are you for ****ing real?
If you actually think this kind of carry on is correct and right, then you need to have a serious word with yourself.

magicbastarder

Tabnabs wrote: »

This post made me chuckle, this rural cycling club is in the hapenny place. Welcome to the world of sports grants; where elite private members clubs with annual membership fees in excess of €2,000 can access tax payer funding in multiples of what this little club in Mayo got.

possibly the same effect - you can hire people to put together a grant application for money for environmental projects. these people know how to put an application together, what wording to use, and how to deal with roadblocks; the sort of information someone running a small volunteer group would take years to find out - and no-one is volunteering them that info.

i suspect a lot of the issue with yacht clubs getting money, yet smaller clubs who are more deserving getting none, is the steep learning curve/access to people who know how to apply for the money.

Tabnabs

magicbastarder wrote: »

i suspect a lot of the issue with yacht clubs getting money, yet smaller clubs who are more deserving getting none, is the steep learning curve/access to people who know how to apply for the money.

And probably nothing to do with the long list of serving and ex ministers, TDs and senior civil servants either members or living locally...

Lumen

Chuchote wrote: »

Writers and artists laugh bitterly at Lottery funding. Originally, all funding was earmarked for the arts.

Those are the same artists that get the first €50k of income tax-free?

Boo hoo!

Chuchote

Lumen wrote: »

Those are the same artists that get the first €50k of income tax-free?

Boo hoo!

These are the same artists whose average income is €15,000.

Boo hoo!

Lumen

Chuchote wrote: »

These are the same artists whose average income is €15,000.

Maybe they should make art that people want to buy rather than attempting to extort money from the rest of us poor saps that have to just shut up and do our jobs.

Moflojo

On a slightly different note - does this grant allocation set a precedent by officially linking cycling to healthcare funding? It would be interesting to see what the club's arguments were behind its application, especially now that the application has been officially accepted on "health" grounds. It could pave the way for more funding for cycling from the Dept. of Health - or it could simply fall between two stools; Health & Transport. The child that nobody wants.

magicbastarder

Lumen wrote: »

Those are the same artists that get the first €50k of income tax-free?

Boo hoo!

to qualify for that tax status - and someone correct me if i am wrong, the situation may have changed - the majority of your income has to come from art. so you have to be making a living already from art before you get the exemption; it does not help the starving artist, who will be paying more proportionally in tax than an established artist.

Chuchote

I suppose what a country does about tax shows where its heart is, and what its values are

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/cerberus-paid-1-900-tax-on-77m-project-eagle-profits-1.2885720

Moflojo

Lumen wrote: »

Those are the same artists that get the first €50k of income tax-free?

Boo hoo!

Chuchote wrote: »

These are the same artists whose average income is €15,000.

Boo hoo!

Ok, this is how this thread is playing out:

terrydel

Chuchote wrote: »

I suppose what a country does about tax shows where its heart is, and what its values are

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/cerberus-paid-1-900-tax-on-77m-project-eagle-profits-1.2885720

Exactly. That crowd are robbing us two ways. Makes me f**king sick.

Chuchote

By the way, the artists' tax exemption is currently set at €40,000.

This exemption is only on the art itself: sales of books you've written or paintings you've painted, not any related work such as readings, for instance. Writers get Public Lending Rights payments if they register for it and you take their book out of the library; the amounts are tiny.

Not sure how many people claim it at the moment; in 2012 it was 55 people in the country, those 55 shockingly robbing the tax coffers of a horrifying €508,200 in total.

terrydel

CramCycle wrote: »

70+ riders in their first year. Not that small. If I was suspicious of anything it's that the RSA supplied their club jersey.

As mentioned above, EK is not even a member. Someone at a meeting had a damn good idea. It worked. The rest is just paper not refusing ink.

Hes an honoary member since last year, not long before the grant arrived.
How very Irish.

Lumen

terrydel wrote: »

Exactly. That crowd are robbing us two ways. Makes me f**king sick.

They're not robbing us, they're taking what our elected representatives are handing them on a plate. Noonan has deliberately engineered the tax system to allow them to avoid paying tax.

Lumen

Chuchote wrote: »

By the way, the artists' tax exemption is currently set at €40,000.

Nope.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/artists-exemption.html

For 2015 and subsequent years the first €50,000 per annum of profits or gains earned by writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors from the sale of their work is exempt from income tax in Ireland in certain circumstances. For the years 2011 to 2014 the maximum amount which was exempt was €40,000.

terrydel

Lumen wrote: »

They're not robbing us, they're taking what our elected representatives are handing them on a plate. Noonan has deliberately engineered the tax system to allow them to avoid paying tax.

Semantics. We are being robbed one way or the other.
But in a country where people elect the likes of kenny and Noonan on the basis of ****e like 20k grants for their cycling club, this is what you get.
Right wing, neo liberal me feiners get elected.

Chuchote

Lumen wrote: »

Nope.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/artists-exemption.html

Ah, sorry about that, I was looking at the 2014 amounts. Sheer horror! :eek: :P Between these artists outrageously having tax relief to buy patches for their trousers to Apple paying a halfpenny tax on every zillion, sure there's no comparison in the horror! And don't even start about the disgraceful Cycle to Work scheme - giving people bicycles at half price, paid for out of your tax money!

And getting back to cycling-related matters, Copenhagen and the finances of cycling vs driving…

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3046345/how-copenhagen-became-a-cycling-paradise-by-considering-the-full-cost-of-cars

When the city decides on a cycling project, it compares the cost to that of a road for cars, and it includes not only the upfront amount, but also things like the cost of road accidents to society, the impact of car pollution on health, and the cost of carbon emitted to the atmosphere. After including these factors, it comes to a rather startling calculation. One kilometer driven by car costs society about 17 cents (15 euro cents), whereas society gains 18 cents (16 euro cents) for each kilometer cycled, the paper finds. That's because of factors like the health benefits of cycling and the avoided ill-effects of cars.

"What we learn here is that society profits from people cycling. It's better for society if people cycle from many different angles, from resource intensity to people's health," says Gössling, in an interview.

bog master

Chuchote wrote: »

I've heard of roads and even a pier in the west attributed to one politician.

Really???? Did this a few years ago on Lotto Funding Grants