(FEB 15) Minister of State for Sport, Michael Ring T.D, has just announced an investment package of €19.6m from the Irish Sports Council into the National Governing Bodies of Sport in Ireland. This is almost €1million more than the equivalent figure for 2014.

Additional investment has been provided to the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, in both core and high performance, to strengthen the capacity of organisation with new appointments.

Overall some €20m in funding will be provided to amateur athletes preparing for the Rio 2016 Olympics and grassroots sporting organisations this year.

The figure, which is a boost of €1m on 2014, includes €8.16m to support Ireland's effort at the Olympics and €10.85m for 59 National Governing Bodies.

In addition, some €600,000 has been set aside for the Women in Sport programme in 2015.

Sport Minister Michael Ring also announced a third round of the Sports Capital Programme, and said he was working with Finance Minister Michael Noonan to finalise a budget.

€8.16m will be invested in 22 Performance Plans which will support Ireland participation at the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games. The high performance NGBs also benefit from the direct service provision at the Institute of Sport, the development of high performance facilities at the National Sports Campus, the 2015 International Carding Scheme and the special sports equipment grants; a comprehensive and integrated package of support for Ireland's top performers.

Speaking at the announcement Minister Ring commented: "I am delighted to be here today to announce a very significant package of sports investment by the Irish Sports Council. Today's investment is a substantial commitment from the Irish Government to the National Governing Bodies of Sport in Ireland. The importance of sport cannot be understated. Sport has the unique ability to activate local communities through participation and volunteerism whilst uniting a nation to support our athletes on the world stage".

Ireland’s top boxers like Olympic gold medallist, Katie Taylor and Belfast’s ‘Terrible twins’ Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan (bronze medallists both in London 2012) now await a March announcement to see how much, if anything, they will receive when the Elite sports stars Carding scheme funding is finalised.

Boxing has long been Ireland’s most successful sport in the Olympics and indeed a major success story even when all sports are considered. For a small nation the Irish Government through the Irish Sports Council has always recognised the importance of boxing.

During the year, the IABA’s High Performance Unit will also be ‘upgraded’ and any NEW Carding funded boxers, male or female, will join such as Olympic Gold medallist Katie Taylor and London 2012 Bronze medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan.

A new building on the national sports campus in Abbotstown, which already houses the Institute for Sport, is being fast-tracked to give Ireland's most successful Olympic sport this training centre.

It will include five permanent boxing rings and should be ready by September, some 11 months prior to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Insofar as the women are concerned, Ireland appears to have a wealth of up and coming young talent hoping to join Taylor after Rio, and a few before then. Among possible stars of the ‘immediate’ future are Michaela Walsh, already a Commonwealth Games silver medallist from Glasgow, Callan’s Clare Grace the only Irish female apart from Taylor to have won an Elite European championships medal and Cavan’s Ceire Smith.

The future generation includes Macroom’s Christina Desmond, Geesala, County Mayo’s Ciara Ginty, a World Junior champion and Dundalk’s Amy Broadhurst who like Ginty has won numerous National titles as well as a European Gold in Poland. So the talent is there but unless the AIBA and the IABA get their act together there may not be enough long term funding to support all the top males and females, most of whom have turned to the sport because of the great success story that has been Irish boxing in recent years.

Boxers won four of the country’s five medals in London 2012. The Irish Government will surely be anxious to retain that status as a time when countries in other parts of the world are benefiting from new State of the Art facilities, from huge indoor arenas that can provide every facility needed for many different sports.

Equally the changes in the world of AIBA boxing have done virtually nothing to help nations such as Ireland - or indeed many others - whilst providing massive support to those in countries they wish to see become even more powerful such as Russia, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to name but five of the seemingly favoured few.

The AIBA Executive need to do more, much more, to ensure that smaller nations whether in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe or wherever receive a ‘fair crack of the whip’ not only in terms of funding but also when allocating major International tournaments such as Worlds and Confederation titles. Not everyone wants to travel to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Korea or China.