Assembly fills sports funding gap in part

• National Lottery
• olympics

Speaking yesterday the Minister said: “Many sports organisations were bitterly disappointed when they learned that their capital applications for Lottery funding, administered through Sport NI, had been unsuccessful.

“I became very concerned about the seriousness of this issue when several clubs contacted me for help. On one hand as Minister for Sport, I am trying to improve sports facilities across Northern Ireland and on the other hand, money that would have been used for this purpose has been redirected to London to fund the Olympics 2012 capital infrastructure. It really was a catch 22 situation.

“I am therefore very pleased that my endeavours have paid off and that I have identified a process through the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) which will more than replace the money previously lost."

Sport NI will have £4.192m taken directly from its budget for 2009 to 2013 to fund the London 2012 Olympics. The so-called "cannibalisation" effect of lottery players puchasing olympic lottery games rather than original good causes games will cost all the non-olympic good causes a further £575m across the UK. Sport NI could lose a further estimated £3m from their budget because of this.

Sport NI itself has estimated a total loss of £14.2m for 2009 to 2013 compared with the previous 6 years. The £4.2m announcement by the Minister for Sport will reduce this loss of funding down to a deficit of £10m.

www.dcalni.gov.uk