Funding announced as athletes focus on qualification for Paris Games

Sport Ireland has announced an increase of €4m of investment provided by the Government for 2023, as Irish athletes focus on Olympic and Paralympic qualification for Paris 2024, while Ciarán Ward has been appointed as Head of High Performance Coaching.

The funding package, which totals €24m, will be provided to 19 national governing bodies to support the delivery of their performance programmes in 2023.

The International Carding Scheme which provides financial support to athletes for their training and competition programmes is included in this year's funding.

Athletes that have achieved criteria for funding in 2022 will be on the International Carding Scheme for 2023 and 2024.

This will allow athletes to focus on training and performances as they seek qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024. This will support 127 athletes and three relays/pool funding in 14 sports.

A grant of €950,000 has been allocated to the Olympic Federation of Ireland (€500,000) and Paralympics Ireland (€450,000) for operations and administration support.

The additional €4m of investment provided by Government for 2023 will be directed to specific initiatives within high performance sport. Coaching, Paris 2024, athlete supports, and High Performance Strategy activation are priority investment areas for Sport Ireland.

The Sport Ireland High Performance Strategy 2021-2032 identifies that "Sport Ireland will develop a clear policy on how team sports will be supported in terms of direct athlete investment, athlete support services and National Governing Body input". The primary objective of funding players within team sports is to enhance their collective ability to compete on a global stage and give recognition of previous