Disability Sport NI 'Devastated' Over Cuts

Disability Sport NI has announced it is "devastated" following cuts in its sports and recreation programmes.

A large reduction in Sport NI funding means the organisation is being forced to remove services from 7,000 of the 20,000 people it currently works with. It has already reduced the number of staff by 25% through natural wastage and redundancy.

In a statement Disability Sport NI said: "We have been forced to make these difficult decisions because of a large reduction in our funding from Sport NI. Last year we secured £285,000 from Sport NI to run our core programmes. This year we received £207,000 and we have been told to expect funding of only £146k next year; this represents a 50% reduction in funding over three years.

"Ironically this decision comes less than a year after we reported our most successful year to date when we ran programmes benefitting over 20,000 people across Northern Ireland."

The projects to stop from the 31st March are: the NI Community Events Programme which involves the organisation of eight community sports events benefitting 1,000 disabled children and adults; the Fermanagh Inclusive Leisure Project which benefits over 2,000 people with disabilities; and the '5 Star Disability Sports Challenge' education project which is delivered to over 3,000 children in primary schools annually.

(CD)