Irish Sport Council 2006 Grants for Older People Announced

Senior Times

Jim Collier welcomes the grants but believes they could be far more generous Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O’Donoghue, T.D. recently announced grants from the Sports Council Funds for the promotion of sport and physical activities among older people.

The fund which is administered by Age and Opportunity has been ongoing since 2001 during which time €1,500,000 has been allocated to groups working with older people. The 2005 fund was €635,000, of which €300,000 was allocated to 541 Community groups and the remaining €335,000 was allocated for the training and development of community sports leaders.

The Minister complimented the Irish Sports Council, and the Age and Opportunity organisation, which administers the funding through it’s ’Go for Life’ programme, for their work in putting the scheme in place. The minister also said that physical activity fosters Well-being and contact with others and is the best guarantee for independent living and increasing ability to cope until late in life. The community/voluntary organisations throughout the country were to be praised for their initiatives in encouraging older people to participate in sports and physical activities.

The 541 recipients of grants included Local Area Sports Partnerships, put in place by the Irish Sports Council, Active Retirement Associations, Senior Citizens Clubs, ICA Guilds, Sports Clubs, Day Clubs and Community Centres. The grants will be used to fund much needed equipment and activity programmes.

Ossie Kilkenny, Chairman of the Irish Sports Council said that research had shown that the relationship between sports participation and good health, strengthens with age. John Treacy, Chief Executive of the Irish Sports Council, concurred with this and said that older people participating in sport, were role models for their communities and younger members in their families.

Prior to the announcement of the allocation of grants, which varied from €500 to €2500, group activity leaders demonstrated sports equipment which were specially designed for older people, which would eliminate dangerous aspects of sports, and also specially adapted equipment to encourage new sports activities. There are now many more sports activities suitable for older people. This year there appeared to have been much more emphasis on grants to health related groups, such as Day Care and Community Care Centres, rehabilitation Care, Alzheimer’s Groups, Rehabcare, Arthritis Foundation and many others, all these are very worthy recipients, however these should be entitled to their needed funding, through the Health Services, where they would not have to compete with the other organisations such as, ICA’s, ARA’s, Senior Citizens, etc. for this particular funding.

While this funding is very welcome, it is inadequate for the promotion of sporting activities for older people throughout the country, especially when it is recognised and acknowledged by all that keeping older people active, considerably reduces he burden on the health services. All those requesting funding are genuinely endeavouring to promote active life styles among older people, with quite a lot of success.

Perhaps the greatest financial burden experienced by these voluntary groups is the cost of premises in which to hold their activities. We constantly see very substantial funding being provided for Sport Clubs, through the Lotto, while there is a requirement of these clubs to provide facilities for younger people, there ` is no reciprocal requirement to do so for older people. Many of these clubs have facilities lying idle during the day, which could and should be made available to older people as part of the conditions governing the grants. This also applies to local Council grants, which dispense considerable funding without any long-term conditions applying, which would benefit older people in the communities.

Why not allocate a percentage of Lotto funding specifically targeted to benefit older person activity groups, instead of the above fund, and have it administered in a similar fashion, by Go for Life.

In many EU countries such as France, older people activity groups obtain start-up funding as well as ongoing annual funding, in these countries also, local government premises are being allocated to older people organisations free of charge for their activities. The federation of Active Retirement Associations (FARA) made a similar request to Minister Ivor Callelly three years ago, appertaining to schools and other centres, but like many other requests from older people groups, nothing has happened.

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