Sport

Sports sector to receive a further €65 million

Sports sector to receive a further €65 million

Ireland's sports sector has received a boost with the announcement of a further €65 million euros in COVID-19 support funding.

It adds to the previous €26.3 million already spent on the sector in 2021, which will go towards supporting the existing associations as they continue to welcome supports back in limited numbers to grounds.

This fund however also includes a swimming pools and facilities fund, as well as a 'resumption of sport & physical activity fund, in order to encourage people to get back to their own recreational sport, whether it be in a club or individually.

How this fund will breakdown has not been revealed, however there is one separate fund for the 'main field' sports of soccer, rugby, and the GAA, and a separate fund for all of the other National Governing Bodies.

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However, Junior Minister Jack Chambers specifically mentioned indoor sports, with many of them only recently returning to training, and aiming to get back to competitive action over an uncertain winter.

"Many organisations and clubs have lost huge amounts of revenue, as their activities have been severely curtailed" said the Minster of State for Sport saiin his statement.

"The indoor sports sector has been particularly badly hit, with indoor sports only set to resume their activities this month.  I hope that this funding will go a long way to assisting our sporting organisations and clubs and enable them to recover fully as we emerge from this pandemic.”

It brings to €91.3 million in total allocated in additional funding to the sport sector in 2021.

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