Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Sport Ireland is the statutory body with responsibility for the development of sport, increasing participation at all levels and raising standards. This includes the allocation of funding across its various programmes. Sport Ireland does not provide direct funding for clubs or individuals, but channels it through the national governing bodies. There is no mechanism by which Sport Ireland can allocate funding outside of this process, and there is no direct funding scheme though which Sport Ireland can support sporting exchanges or events such as this.

Sport Ireland allocates its funding for boxing to the Irish Athletic Boxing Association, IABA. As the Deputy will be aware, the IABA has made significant progress in implementing governance reforms over the past six to nine months. In February of this year, I was pleased to announce core funding of €525,000 for the IABA this year as part of Sport Ireland’s allocations to sporting national governing bodies. This represents a €25,000 increase on the 2022 allocation. This funding, allied to €965,000 in high performance funding for this year, demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting what is our most successful and most important Olympic sport, and a sport that, at grassroots level, reaches communities that many other sports do not.

I would advise the boxing clubs involved with the Shamrock and Olive Tree Boxing Project to engage with the IABA, through their established channels, to see what support might be available for this exchange. I regret that neither my Department nor Sport Ireland has any funding stream through which this initiative can be directly supported. Sport is an important vehicle for developing cultural relations, and I would like to wish the project every success with the exchange.

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