Vol. 495 No. 5
50 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he has sought to clarify the role and intended use of the Olympic Solidarity Fund; and if the Olympic Council of Ireland has indicated the way in which it intends to access this fund for Irish sport. [20522/98]
I am advised that Olympic Solidarity is the body responsible for managing and administering the share of the television rights of Olympic Games that is allocated to the National Olympic Committees, NOCs. Furthermore, I understand from the Olympic Solidarity 1997 report that it draws up its budgets to a four year plan and that the aid and development budget approved by the Olympic Solidarity Commission for 1997-2000 is just under US $122 million.
The terms of Article 8 of the Olympic Charter indicate that the aims of Olympic Solidarity programmes include: the promotion of the fundamental principle of the Olympic movement; training sports administrators, developing the technical sports knowledge of athletes and coaches, supporting the organisation of competitions at national, regional and continental level under the authority and patronage of the national Olympic committees, and encouraging joint programmes of bilateral or multilateral co-operation between the national Olympic committee.
In their application for State funding in 1998, the Olympic Council of Ireland indicated that it had received significant funding from Olympic Solidarity in respect of 1998 which the council decided to use primarily to help finance participation, in the Nagano Winter Olympic Games, and towards administrative costs.
While it is appreciated that the Olympic Council of Ireland may not be able to access support under Olympic Solidarity to the same degree as developing countries, I must ensure that when determining the level of public funding to be awarded to any private organisation for any particular year that the organisation's potential access to other funding has been fully explored.
