Sports Capital Grant Allocations

By John Considine

Last Thursday, before Ireland beat Germany, the Minister for Sport announced the 2015 sports capital grant allocations (here).  The allocations are presented by county.  There is also a distinction between Local Grants and Non-Local Grants.  A summary of the county allocations per person is presented in the picture below.  Leitrim received the highest per person allocation and Dublin the least.

The 2015 allocation were the third round announced by this minister.  Minister Ring claimed that the allocations have helped to facilitate participation by improving the sports infrastructure (here).  Combining the 2012, 2014 and 2015 allocations it is possible to also establish the per person allocation by county for the total amount distributed by the government.  Leitrim again heads the list of the 26 counties.

The Minister's county of Mayo is fifth on the list.  Previous Ministers who presided over three rounds of allocations found that their counties topped the list (i.e. Donegal and Kerry).  After his first round of allocations, Minister Ring said he was going to address the imbalance of the past.  He has done this to some extent.

Leitrim tops the list of per person allocations.  It also has the smallest population of the 26 counties listed.  However, before we start thinking that smaller populations inflate the figure, it should be noted that Longford has the second smallest population and that county is at the other end of the distribution.  The picture below presents the allocations in order of county population.  Dublin has the largest population and Leitrim the smallest population.  This picture facilitates a comparison of a county's allocation with that of counties with similar populations.  For example, Westmeath did well when compared to Kilkenny and Laois.  Carlow also stands out in a comparison with Monaghan and Longford.  Offaly does poorly compared to Laois and Cavan.