The Donegal Sports Partnership has been allocated €437,219 under the 2025 Core Funding for Sport.
A total of €429,719 has been secured through the Core and Programme Funding, with €7,500 coming from the Women in Sport Core Funding.
The allocation is part of a €12 million package that will be shared among the country’s 29 Local Sports Partnerships.
Welcoming the allocation, Donegal Minister of State, Charlie McConalogue, said: “This funding represents a significant investment in an organisation that does such great work throughout our county. This allocation will help to ensure that the tremendous work being done by the team at Donegal Sports Partnership continues throughout our local communities.”
“This investment will support the Donegal Sports Partnership staff to establish and promote the delivery of sport and physical activity opportunities with continued strong programme funding, promotional budgets and community and development funds. This latest allocation of funding will also help to maximise the impact of Donegal Sports Partnership’s resources, while building partnerships and capacity through local community sport and physical activity investment,” the Minister of State with responsibility for Sport and Postal Policy added.
The allocation of €11,945,000 to the Local Sports Partnership network is part of an overall investment of €31.3 million from government announced today by Minister Charlie McConalogue, at the National Sports Campus. €18.3 million in core funding has been allocated to 65 National Governing Bodies.
Speaking at the event, he said: “2024 saw the largest-ever capital investment by the state in sports facilities in communities across Ireland, through the Community Sport Facilities Fund and the Large-Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund. The Government will continue to support the funding of sports capital projects and I would urge you to be proactive within your organisations, in promoting and facilitating applications for funding in future rounds of these programmes.”
The Minister of State added: “Disability will be a key focus of mine in my role as Minister for Sport. People with disabilities and those who are marginalised or disadvantaged, face barriers to participating in sport. We must do more to identify and address those barriers and encourage more inclusion and diversity, thus increasing levels of participation amongst those cohorts. A person’s disability should not be an obstacle in being physically active.
“It is therefore, pleasing to see an increased focus on addressing disability inclusion in sport, in today’s announcement. Sport Ireland’s recently published Statement of Commitment and Action to Disability Inclusion in Sport will be a key driver in meeting our targets for increased participation among those with a long-term illness or disability, over the coming years. Swimming continues to be one of the most popular sports and recreational activities for people with a disability. The National Swimming Strategy, published last August, is an example to all sports as to how we can develop a suite of actions to increase access for people with disabilities and improve the culture of inclusion.”
“In 2025, we will enhance support for a vital element of our sporting ecosystem, volunteerism. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our sporting clubs and communities. Every day, up and down this island, volunteers step up and generously give their time and effort to sport and many other community causes. Without these people selfless contribution, and often at significant cost to themselves, there would not be a sports sector,” he said.
“The record investment of €31 million announced today, is an increase of €13.5 million (or 76%) compared to 2018 when our National Sports Policy was published. This increased investment will assist in ensuring the long-term sustainability of our sporting organisations and will enable the sector to continue to deliver increased opportunities for people to participate in a wide variety of sports,” the Minister of State for Sport and Postal Policy added.
