‘A do-nothing budget in a do-nothing Dáil’ is how Labour TD, Seán Sherlock described Tuesday’s Budget while Fianna Fail Spokesperson on Sport, Kevin O’Keeffe, describing it as ‘progressive, but not good enough’ said he was ‘deeply disappointed and angry’ at the Government’s decision to cut funding to sport and recreational services for 2017 by 17%.
Deputy Sherlock said the budget makes a ‘mockery’ of the Dáil reform process.
“We were supposed to have a more collaborative approach to budgetary mechanisms and the forming of the budget but these have not transpired. It is a do-nothing budget because on account of the political reality that exists at the moment, it spreads itself so thinly that it has no material benefit for any citizen.”
He was also critical of the Government’s additional savings of €200 million while casting doubts on their commitment to bring public sector pay increases.
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Deputy O’Keeffe meanwhile said the cut in funding to sport and recreational services is an incredibly regressive decision. It is one of the few funding cuts in Budget 2017, and it’s clear that they want it swept under the carpet in the hope that it will go unnoticed,” said O’Keeffe, adding that the once-off payment to the National Sports Campus, in Abbotstown, ‘while worthy, has reduced the overall fund for local sports organisations across the State’.
“We often hear politicians speak regularly about the health, mental well-being, and fitness benefits of sports and recreation. The decision to make such a drastic cut has the potential to adversely affect all communities’ across the whole
He assures the Government ‘and all Government TDs in Cork’, that it won’t go unnoticed by the thousands of sports organisations in the country.
