Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The Irish Sports Council was established under the Irish Sports Council Act 1999. Its main functions are to encourage the promotion, development and co-ordination of competitive sport and to facilitate and promote increased participation in sport. The Council is almost exclusively State-funded from the Vote for Transport, Tourism and Sport.

In 2012, grant income - including some deferred pension funding - totalled €45 million. The Council generated other income of €553,000. Expenditure in 2012 was €45.4 million. The Council had a surplus for the year of €87,000, compared to a deficit of €477,000 in 2011. The Council’s administration costs in 2012 amounted to €2.7 million, with payroll and pension costs accounting for €2 million.

Almost 90% of the Council’s programme expenditure is accounted for by grant payments to sports bodies and individuals, with grant allocation decisions being approved at council or council sub-committee level. Figure 2 on the documentation shows the main categories of grant payment in 2012. The largest single area in relation to grants paid is grants to national governing bodies for sports, which totalled €11 million. Grants for field sports - that is, grants to the FAI, the GAA and the IRFU - totalled €8 million. High-performance grants, which are also paid to national governing bodies, totalled €6.4 million. The remainder of the council’s expenditure - €4.6 million - was accounted for by a number of programmes it operates directly. This included expenditure of €1.3 million on the Institute of Sport, just under €1 million spent on anti-doping measures and €0.9 million spent on programmes aimed at increasing participation in sport. The Council’s financial statements for 2012 received an unqualified audit opinion. The fieldwork for the audit of the 2013 financial statements was carried out in June. The results of the audit are currently being reviewed, and I expect to receive the file for examination shortly.