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Sport for Business
Sport for Business
Sport in Budget 2026
Let us know what’s on your mind
We break down Budget 2026 for Irish sport and what it means for national bodies, players, clubs and facilities. We share the numbers, the politics behind them, and where the real gains can land over the next 18 months.
• €10.8m uplift for Sport Ireland and legacy programmes
• Core funding increases for GAA and IRFU
• Targeted support for inter‑county players
• Growth funding for hurling and camogie in new areas
• €3m for League of Ireland academies
• Women’s rugby pathway investment
• High-performance funding steps towards LA 2028
• Velodrome and Badminton Centre to begin in 2026
• LSSIF annual uplift and community facilities progress
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Hello and welcome to the Sport for Business Daily. My name is Rob Hartnett and I'm your host. Sport for Business is all about the commercial side of sport in Ireland and stretching wider into the outside world as well. We publish daily news bulletins and a substantial amount of content on the website at sportforbusiness.com. And we also have an established podcast series of interviews with leaders in the world of business and sport. I hope you enjoy the Sport for Business Daily. If you want to get in touch, you can do so at rob at sportforbusiness.com. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or listening in at sportforbusiness.com on a daily basis. Thanks very much for taking the time to be with us today. So today's lead story can only be about the key highlights of Budget 2026 for Irish sport. What are they? Well, there is 10.8 million in extra current funding for Sport Ireland. This includes increased core funding for national governing bodies, which amounts to 2 million, two-thirds of what was put forward by the sector as being required, and an additional$500,000 to support Sport Ireland's work with sports legacy programs and events. There's an additional amount of funding for Gaelic Games, including enhanced core funding for the GAA of$250,000, which has been very plateaued for the last number of years. There is just under$750,000 to grow hurling and comogi in non-traditional areas, and an additional$1.6 million to support inter-county players. We've also got a report on the reaction from the Gaelic Players Association to this rise, which is positive, albeit stating that it is just the first step towards the proposed figure in total of 10 million that they feel as though the intercounty players are deserving of. There is extra funding for the IRFU, which includes enhanced core funding, again on the same lines as the GAA of$250,000 and funding of just under$500,000 to support the building of high performance pathways for women's rugby. There is$3 million to the FAI to support League of Ireland football academies. This was flagged in Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Jack Chambers' budget speech on the floor of Dahl Aaron, and followed through in quite extensive discussions as part of Minister Patrick O'Donovan and Minister of State Charlie McConnell's briefing to media and officials, which took place yesterday evening. We were live blogging from there on the Sport for Business website. High performance funding has also increased by 1.5 million ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, meeting the programme for government commitments that is expected to rise to 30 million from its current 28.5 million next year as well. The benefits of multiannual funding obviously coming through there in relation to the certainty that sport has. There's an investment of 500,000 into a grassroots golf participation programme as part of the legacy around hosting major golf events like the Ryder Cup in 2027. Good news for cycling and badminton, the National Velodrome and Badminton Centre, is to commence construction in 2026, and money has been made available for that. On the bigger projects, the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund has also received an annual allocation which is increased by 18.7 million to support the development of world-class sports facilities. And finally, amongst the high-level ticket items at least, a 58.7 million allocation will support expenditure on thousands of existing projects under the Community Sport Facilities Fund, with the intention already stated of announcing the opening of a further round in 2026. Looking at the uh looking at the our reaction to what the budget has said, it was flagged in advance, as we said, of being less of a giveaway than last year's, and sport has done well to emerge with significant gains. There will be some continued unease at the fact that core funding was set at 2 million rather than the 10% increase or 3 million, which was urged by the sector. But a comment from officials about getting a 6.5% increase at a time of 2.2% inflation would suggest that there is a belief that this was a good result and a win for sport. The FAI have to be commended on the lobbying campaign. It manifested itself in strong political buy-in before last year's election and in the programme for government, and it has been rewarded with what Minister Jack Chambers said was a multi-year commitment. The amount asked in year one was 4.5 million, and the amount given has been 3 million, but this is still a substantial kickstart to what can be done. Finally, the opening of the new round of community sports funding is a real positive for clubs and national governing bodies around the country, and the rising allocation towards the large-scale infrastructure fund, together with strong hints that progress on the approved projects must be made in order to hold on to that funding, suggests that that will happen in 2026 as well. We've got the reaction from the Gaelic Players Association and the FAI initially, and we'll be updating with the reaction from others throughout today on sportforbusiness.com. And we also have a piece looking at a joint statement from eight of the world's leading rugby unions stating a very cautious approach and uh and and some degree of criticism about the proposed R360 campaign, which uh rugby is wrestling with at the moment. Mike Tyndall is one of the faces behind that, but we haven't seen much detail, and obviously the rugby unions now are looking to stamp that out before it gains any particular traction. You can catch up with all of the days news and reaction from the commercial world of Irish Sport at sportforbusiness.com. Thank you for joining us this morning. Just being here and putting our little nation on the map, it's just, you know, this is the stuff of of dreams. It's spinning, it's spinning, it's
