Sport Funding

Mr. Gregory Campbell

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much public funding was allocated to (a) soccer, (b) Gaelic games, (c) rugby and (d) cricket in Northern Ireland in the last five years. [115700]

The Sports Council for Northern Ireland (SCNI) is responsible for the development of Sport in NI including the distribution of public funding to individual sports.The following tables provides information from each source of funding distributed by SCNI for the five year period 1998–2003 for the four sports of soccer, Gaelic games, rugby and cricket.

Lottery funding
						£
	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	Total
Soccer	677,073	816,616	942,492	642,710	609,131	3,688,022
Gaelic games	2,703,811	1,303,185	1,694,182	1,025,420	689,962	7,416,560
Rugby	155,526	100,784	312,053	144,000	76,860	789,223
Cricket	215,298	212,837	282,500	57,202	16,000	783,837
Total	3,751,708	2,433,422	3,231,227	1,869,332	1,391,953	12,677,642

Safe Sports Grounds

The money provided by the Safe Sports Ground Programme was made available from financial year 2000–01 for the three sports of soccer, Gaelic games and

						£
	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	Total
Soccer	—	—	1,206,809	784,003	415,188	2,406,000
Gaelic games	—	—	622,085	350,833	507,082	1,480,000
Rugby	—	—	136,843	140,612	68,536	345,991
Total	—	—	1,965,737	1,275,448	990,806	4,231,991

Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP)

The following table shows the total allocation from EU Structural Funds from 1998 to date across various departments, for the four sports. DFP has worked

							£
	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003 to date	Total
Soccer	6,325	17,984	—	159,500	—	¹10,800	194,609
Gaelic games	304,005	10,000	1,000	—	—	—	315,005
Rugby	—	6,500	—	—	—	—	6,500
Cricket	—	25,250	—	—	—	—	25,250
Total	310,330	59,734	1,000	159,500	—	10,800	541,364
¹This figure of £10,800 reflects the award allocated by DFP for soccer from 2003 to date, this award was made under the Measure 3.2 of the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DA RD)

The following table details DARD's funding for the four sports for five-year period 1998–2003. In addition to the figures provided in the table, DARD has allocated

						£
	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	Total
Soccer	1,270	2,835	—	—	—	4,105
Gaelic games	—	¹45	8,557	1,885	¹11,118	21,605
Rugby	¹606	²1,760	—	¹1,878	—	4,244
Cricket	—	—	4,067	—	—	4,067
Total	1,876	4,640	12,624	3,763	11,118	34,021
¹This expenditure relates to grants payable under the Woodland Grant Scheme, which encourages the creation of new woodland and the sustainable management of existing woodland.
²This amount was allocated to a Gaelic athletic club to help in the promotion of rugby through coaching and exhibition match.

Department of Education
						£
1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	Total
Soccer	422.06	857.31	102.00	—	—	1,381.37
Gaelic games	300.00	—	—	—	—	300.00
Total	722.06	857.31	102.00	—	—	1,681.37

rugby. The following table shows the funding that was allocated for these sports for the three-year period 1 April 2000–31 March 2003.

under the assumption that public funding encapsulates funding through the public purse, including EU structural funds.

£899 in 1998–99 for sport in general, including soccer and cricket, DARD have been unable to provide a detailed breakdown of this amount in respect of each sport referred to.

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI)

The following table details the grant payments made by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) for each of the four sports for the periods in question.


1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	Total
Soccer	6,750	6,400	7,200	8,800	13,500	42,650
Gaelic gamesߞ	ߞ	ߞ	500	—	500
Rugby	680	600	—	—	—	1,280
Cricket	—	1,500	—	2,000	—	3,500
Total	7,430	8,500	7,200	11,300	13,500	47,930

Volume 410: debated on Monday 15 September 2003