This week's confirmatory announcement of Sport Ireland High-Performance funding allocation is good news for sailors who have benefited from improved performances and an increase in the amounts awarded to International and World Class level athletes.
Finn Lynch's silver medal at last year's ILCA 7 World Championships has promoted him to the Podium level which awards him €40,000 per annum through to Paris 2024. The 49er pairing of Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove is considered world-class, which brings €25,000 each.
Seafra Guilfoyle, Johnny Durcan, Aoife Hopkins, Ewan McMahon and Eve McMahon will receive International level funding of €18,000 each.
€3.2m for Irish Sailing
Irish Sailing's high-performance programme funding has increased by €130,000 from €3,070,000 to €3,200,000 which seems positive, but analysis of the funding increases in other sports relegates Sailing to 17th of the 21 sports awarded this funding.
Five sports (Canoeing, Judo, Taekwondo, Gymnastics and Badminton) enjoyed increases of over 100%, while eight further sports received increases of between 20% and 70%.
Irish Sailing's increase of 4%, will actually be a decrease in real terms as increased levels of inflation bite into associated costs.
Sailing, which was the second best-funded Olympic Sport for Tokyo 2020, has now fallen to fifth place in the funding rankings.
John Menton
Sydney Olympic discus thrower John Menton leads the Irish Sailing Olympic Steering Group following the retirement of Patrick Coveney.
In a statement, Irish Sailing said it will 'continue to work closely with Sport Ireland to help meet the challenges of implementing the recommendations from the Tokyo Olympic Report'.
Full Sport Ireland report here and Irish Sailing's commissioned Tokyo Independent External Review review is here