FAI the big winners in €7.4m Government investment

A good news story.

The Government have unburdened themselves of €7.4 million for a range of grass-roots and youth development projects across the sporting spectrum. The basic thrust of the funding push is to increase sports participation throughout Ireland. This includes coach development, club support, under-age programmes, volunteer support programmes, community schemes, referee development and targeting at-risk communities. The funding pie will be sliced like this:

FAI: €2.7m GAA: €2.4m IRFU: €2.36m

Today's announcement follows the €19.6m investment in National Governing Bodies, €1.5m in direct athlete investment and €5.1m to support the National Network of Local Sports Partnerships. John Treacy, CEO of the Irish Sports Council said, '[We] share a common goal with the GAA, IRFU and FAI to increase participation in sport and physical activity. In 2014, [we] supported over 770,000 participants in various programmes across 4,656 clubs. Today’s investment highlights our strategy of encouraging participation across Ireland, from every age group and from all social backgrounds, removing barriers that prevent participation in sport.' Here are some of the interesting tidbits from the ISC's latest report:

• 24,194 females were involved in FAI participation programmes in 2014
• 14% increase in the number of youth hurling teams since 2010
• 19% increase in youth rugby teams since 2006/2007