Ireland's national governing bodies for sport will receive a share of EUR10.92m (£9m) following confirmation of the Irish Sports Council (ISC) investment plans for 2012.

The organisation's total budget for this year is EUR44.5m (£36.8m) – down from EUR47m (£38.8m) in 2011. Core grants to national governing bodies will account for a quarter of the ISC allocation.

ISC's High Performance budget remains at EUR10.5m (£8.7m), which comprises 24 per cent of the total investment planned by the ISC this year.

There is a 10 per cent cut to the budgets of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), with the three sharing EUR8.27m (£6.8m) to support their participation programmes.

Other larger national governing bodies have received a 7 per cent reduction in their budgets, while smaller sports bodies and Local Sports Partnerships will see a 2.5 per cent and 7 per cent drop respectively.

The 31 Local Sports Partnerships have been awarded EUR5.38m (£4.4m) in 2012 and EUR1.01m (£834,000) has been allocated to sports bodies through the Women in Sport Programme.

ISC chair Kieran Mulvey said: "The priority this year was high performance because everyone wants to see our athletes do well in London.

"This means the national governing bodies and Local Sports Partnerships have to plan the year with less resources."

Details: www.irishsportscouncil.ie

Image: Eoghan McNally/Shutterstock.com

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