All men who have contributed valuably to Irish life.
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I’ve no issue with the state funding sporting organisations be it gaa or irfu( though giving money to the fai is like giving whiskey to the Indians).
But state funded schools should not be spending millions on vanity sporting projects like the Leinster Rugby cup.
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Eh. It isn’t. The state afaik pay the teaching salaries. The vast majority of the sports programmes are paid by the school fees and by fundraising.
What extra curricular activity is not a “vanity” project?
They receive funding for a certain number of teachers - less than what the State provides public schools. This allows the State to spend extra in public schools. For a school with 500 pupils, it’s about 5 teachers less. That’s a saving for the State of probably close to €350,000 per school annually when the average fully loaded cost of a teacher on average is considered. That’s before capitation grants etc. All of these pupils are entitled to free secondary education.
Also this isn’t particularly unique to Ireland, despite the popular narrative and the way the narrative is spun on it.
Indeed, but less teachers (they cut the ratio during the crash, it used to be the same). It is a significant saving to the exchequer.
And some considerations for people obsessed with removing this;
- it’s unknown what would happen if the State stopped paying the salaries of some of those teachers. It’s impossible to “benchmark” the number of students who would be in these schools if the fees were higher (for a 500 pupil school it would be about €3k-€4k more)- mostly because internationally there is a degree of “subsidy” or State funding to pretty much all private schools. The net cost would almost certainly take out a % of those in those schools though (and/or see schools enter the “free scheme”) and put the full cost to the State for that pupil. We have some history of this with the likes of Kilkenny College going public a decade ago after the State reduced the teacher/pupil ratio and the fees had to go up which parents couldn’t afford - the State will be paying millions more for that school now
- in terms of educational equality, there’s no real evidence that it would reduce it. Private schools here are largely geographic and religious based, due to historical factors. The parent who could afford €7k in fees and can’t afford €11k in fees is not going to just pocket that €7k for themselves. You can be sure that money will go on grind schools, foreign language exchanges, extra curricular to boost a CV and anything else that is perceived to give an advantage
- we have limited amounts of Teacher salary differentiation right now (the Institute, Dublin School of Grinds and others the only “true” private schools with salaries different to 99% of teachers). The fact that the State pays teachers in the fee paying sector means the salaries are standardised across the board- a smaller but more independent private sector will almost certainly result in good teachers in the public sector being poached more.
For the most part, I’d say parents like Old Man Feidhlim is happy enough that a big chunk of the €16k fees he forks out for Amhlaoibh and Riagán is going toward rogbee activities.
There is a bit of a difference between a school chess club and a school paying millions of euros to run a juvenile rugby team.
And?
Its morally wrong to use state funding on a school rugby program that costs millions of euro.
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The Koh Samui Cup
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But they don’t.
Ah they do
So all activities for kids should be low cost then?
The actual cost for any school (through the State or whatever) for any field sport is going to be higher than something like chess.
Tell me why GGA players get funding from the Irish state and not other amateur past times? This massively subsidises the GGA and allows them to have promotions officers in schools and clubs. That “cost” is just hidden elsewhere.
There is some amount of scutter posted about schools rugby on “budgets”.
“Millions of Euro” is said like these schools have an army of full time rugby coaches.
They might have one Director of Rugby who also works at a club along with some coaches (teachers, past pupils and the odd club figure) getting stipends and physios paid by game etc.
Facilities of course is a factor, but again that comes out parent’s fees and is a capital cost.
What do most parent’s spend on extra curricular activities in a year?
Jack O’Leary (5th in European cross country) got no government funding last year but thousands of muldoons who played intercounty bogball get 10 years of tax breaks. It’s an absolute scandal that boggers receive vast financial backing from the state for participating in a rural hobby to the detriment of our developing & elite athletes.
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Southern Hemisphere ‘Directors of Rugby’ S&C, video analysis, nutrition (often bulking young men up to unhealthy levels), medical teams, Warm weather trainiing camps. Tours to the southern hemisphere. A million easy.
The whole ethos is rotten. For the majority of these players the SCT is the ultimate goal and they stop playing when it is over. At 18 or 19. A load of elitist aul bollox.
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I think you’ve mixed up your tropes here pal.
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You could say the same about any amateur sports club.
The vast majority are still teachers who get an hourly to coach.
What is rotten about trying to do something well? This is just cringe reverse snobbery.
A huge chunk of the fees goes simply to equalise the position between fee paying and free schools (less teachers paid and capex). Look internationally for truly expensive schools (and no it’s not because the government here does considerably more than elsewhere).
It’s a good job that no gga players go on warm weather training camps or it would look extremely elitist.
As @Bandage points out, we have our elite athletes deprived whilst the State funds amateurs doing dead end hobbies.