For more than 10 years the Irish FA has proudly delivered the award-winning Curriculum Sports Programme in partnership with our colleagues at Ulster GAA. More than 50 staff across the two sports have positively impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of pupils.
The Association is therefore hugely disappointed to receive confirmation that no in-year funding will be made available for the Programme by the Department. Research shows that active children are healthier children. The Irish FA and Ulster GAA coaches involved in this programme have provided a vital service both for schools and for broader society. Half the children they work with are girls and they teach pupils from P1-P4 everything from fundamental movement skills and help inspire a life-long love of sport.
The Irish FA, along with our colleagues in Ulster GAA, will continue to lobby for the continuation of this programme in the 2019/20 financial year and we will impress on key decision makers the positive benefits that this programme has for pupils, teachers and schools right across Northern Ireland.