The price of London's Olympic success

The success of London's Olympic bid announced in Singapore on the 6 July 2005 represents a shot in the arm for UK sport and indeed volunteering, but what is the cost to good causes in Northern Ireland?

The world's most prestigious sporting event will undoubtedly be a massive boost for the profile of sport and indeed the ripple effects may well reach Northern Ireland although no Olympic events are planned to date.

The London bid team estimated the cost of staging the games at £3.5 billion pounds. This is already recognised as being grossly underestimated as the costs of security (budgeted at around £350,000) seem totally inadequate. Athens spent in the regions of £1 billion on security in 2004. It has been demonstrated this morning that London will have security issues much greater than that Greece had to face.

Northern Ireland is estimated to lose over £2,500,000 per year for seven years from its good causes budget according to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's own figures.

In a statement on their website they have said:

Provision has also been made for Ministers to transfer funding from the mainstream National Lottery fund to the Olympics Fund in "exceptional circumstances". The DCMS Select Committee stated in strong terms that it "deplored" the erosion of the additionality principle of Lottery funding in relation to the Olympic Lottery Fund.

We regard the £1.5 billion earmarked by the Government as the Lottery's overall contribution to the Olympics as a straightforward raid - DCMS Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2003-2004

The Sports Council funding streams to Northern Ireland are also likely to be affected. The Government has directed that £340m of the sports councils' allocation be diverted to the costs of the Olympics. This will mean that local funding streams will be significantly cut in the period 2004 to 2012. Will this really be good news for sport in Northern Ireland as Ministers claim?

Again the select committee had something to say on the matter

The funding of the Olympics in London in 2012 is being part financed by, absurdly enough, charities and organisations providing services in health, education, arts, heritage, and the environment. Money from the National Lottery which would have gone to these sectors in the period 2005 to 2012 will now fund the London Olympics.

In Northern Ireland, £2.5 million/annum is the equivalent of around 25% of the Big Lottery Fund's budget for the voluntary and community sector grants programme.

It is inevitable that the legacy of the 2012 games will be that the most disadvantaged sections of our society will be furtherd disadvantaged because of the London Olympic adventure.