OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard)

Committee for Finance and Personnel OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard) Rates (Amendment) Bill: Sport Governing Bodies and Sport Northern Ireland 2 December 2015 NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY Committee for Finance and Personnel Rates (Amendment) Bill: Sport Governing Bodies and Sport Northern Ireland 2 December 2015 Members present for all or part of the proceedings: Mr Daithí McKay (Chairperson) Mr Dominic Bradley (Deputy Chairperson) Ms Michaela Boyle Mrs Judith Cochrane Mr Leslie Cree Mr Gordon Lyons Mr John McCallister Mr Gary Middleton Mr Máirtín Ó Muilleoir Mr Jim Wells Witnesses: Mr Ryan Feeney Gaelic Athletic Association Mr Jim Shaw Irish Football Association Mr Ciaran Kearney Northern Ireland Sports Forum Dr Shaun Ogle Sport Northern Ireland Mr David Johnston Ulster Rugby The Chairperson (Mr McKay): I welcome to the Committee Mr Ciaran Kearney, chairman of the NI Sports Forum; Ryan Feeney from Ulster GAA, a late substitute for Mr Danny Murphy; Mr David Johnston, funding manager of Ulster Rugby; Dr Shaun Ogle, performance system manager at Sport NI; and Mr Jim Shaw, president of the Irish Football Association (IFA). Have any of you a prepared statement that you want to make before we go to questions from members? Mr Ciaran Kearney (Northern Ireland Sports Forum): Thank you very much, Chair and members. I will start. I am the executive manager of the Northern Ireland Sports Forum, and I thank you for the opportunity to appear at the Committee to discuss the Rates (Amendment) Bill. I think that it is worthwhile to provide to members who are unfamiliar with our work a brief introduction to the role of the Northern Ireland Sports Forum. The forum is a voluntary association whose membership consists of 64 governing bodies of sport, 18 associate members and 16 individual members with an interest in sport and physical recreation. We are the recognised umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector of sport in Northern Ireland, and we act as the independent voice of voluntary sport in Northern Ireland. Among our members are the three governing bodies here with me today: Ulster Rugby, Ulster GAA and the Irish Football Association. A range of further members includes the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI), Ulster branch, Cycling Ulster, Ulster Hockey, Swim Ulster and the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland. Associate members include Disability Sport NI and the Mary Peters Trust, along with numerous council sports advisory committees. Our membership 1 consists of many organisations that operate on an all-island basis, some Northern Ireland bodies and some provincial or regional bodies affiliated to either Irish or British national governing bodies. We receive funding from Sport NI and work alongside it to support our members in the three key areas of governance and leadership, representation and communication. With governing bodies being of vastly different sizes, we aim to provide necessary support to members as required. We have worked alongside the Chair on his private Member's Bill, and I am proud to say that the response from the sporting sector was overwhelming. The number of responses received demonstrates how sports clubs feel that they need, through rates relief, to be able to maintain and develop sport throughout their communities. At this stage, we are unsure about the overall detail proposed by the Minister, but, last week, I met Brian McClure of the Department, along with Ken Armstrong of the Belfast Indoor Bowls Club and representatives of the Federation of Clubs to discuss the Bill's next steps. In the short time available to consult our members on the Bill, I have been able to take the views of the Golfing Union of Ireland, Ulster Branch; the Royal Yachting Association NI (RYANI); the Northern Cricket Union (NCU); Ulster Badminton; and Ulster Hockey. All those organisations are adamant that the income from the bars of their sports clubs is used to service the running costs and operations of the sport. Profits from the bars are used to maintain and restore changing and storage facilities, to improve playing pitches, courts and courses and to ensure that membership costs are kept to a minimum. The bars are not used to increase profit for the sake of profit. In Northern Ireland, there are approximately 3,600 sports clubs, and, according to the Department, there are only 163 community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) with their own facilities. A survey by the Sport and Recreation Alliance in 2013 showed that only around 40% of clubs in Northern Ireland made a profit. Unfortunately, as a result, clubs have increased membership fees by 45%, and the opportunity to participate in club sport and physical activity is becoming too expensive. The same survey outlined that clubs are not renewing equipment; carrying out less maintenance of infrastructure and playing facilities; and stopping paying expenses to volunteers. A performance pathway for sports with poorer equipment, poorer facilities and fewer volunteers will lead to a lack of participation and, ultimately, the chances of medal success being diminished. Kevin Stevens of the GUI, Richard Johnson of the NCU, Angela Platt of Ulster Hockey and Ronnie Browne of the RYANI were able to provide me with numerous examples of clubs in their sport that were in severe danger of going out of business due to the financial constraints that they currently face. Some of these clubs are integral to the development of their community, and the health and well-being provided to active members is evident. The closing of major sports clubs in Northern Ireland gives us and our governing bodies major concern. This should also deeply concern the Executive as, without these clubs, our health service, which is already under severe pressure, will become further troubled. One of the governing bodies provided examples of how it has been unable to upgrade facilities to make them suitable for people with disabilities and more attractive for females to use. We are aware of concerns raised over recent weeks about the impact on the hospitality sector. I am sure that, like you, Chair, many of the Committee have attended sporting functions in hotels, restaurants and bars throughout Northern Ireland. Our member clubs and associations provide significant trade to the hospitality sector. As the voice of the sport sector, we do not believe that the costs incurred in providing greater rates relief to sports clubs should be seen as a detrimental factor in providing that relief. We are of the belief that the Assembly cannot afford not to give further support to sport. Greater investment in sport provides greater benefit to the health and well-being of our rural areas, towns, villages and cities. Sport unites our community in ways that nothing else can, whether that is the pride of seeing your local grass-roots team achieve success or the impact of our athletes and teams achieving international sporting success. Mr Ó Muilleoir: May we have a copy of your statement? Mr Kearney: Yes, I can leave a couple of copies. The Chairperson (Mr McKay): Are there any other opening comments before we go to questions? Mr David Johnston (Ulster Rugby): I have a short statement. Thanks very much for the opportunity to provide evidence this morning, and apologies that Chris Webster was not able to attend. I will lead on from where Ciaran left off. 2 At Ulster Rugby, the business model of using bar takings to drive income into clubs is becoming outdated. Very few clubs make a large profit from their bar, which, compared with commercial properties, is underutilised. Bars are utilised mainly on a Saturday to accommodate people on match day and at associated functions. Outside of that, most bars sit vacant and are not open during the week. Therefore, it is difficult to see the comparison. A further point is on the assessment of a club before it can become a CASC. HMRC takes into consideration the ratio of social use against participation in the sport by looking at things like bar turnover compared with overall turnover and membership categories. That provides another level of verification for these clubs of their community benefits and limited bar usage. Lastly, our clubs are managed and operated solely by volunteers, so any opportunity to ease the burden of running them for the community would be very much welcomed. Dr Shaun Ogle (Sport Northern Ireland): I will put a little more detail on some of what has been said. We have been involved in research looking at sports economics and management — part of that revolves around clubs and the changes in clubs — and have some specific data from Northern Ireland. The sample was small — 74 clubs — but I think that it was broad enough and representative enough. The point to highlight is that, in 2013, 22 made a loss, 21 broke even and 31 made a profit. The research shows that the average deficit across clubs is in the order of £800. If you look at club size in Northern Ireland, which is fairly small, you see that that is significant for a lot of clubs, so many are living a hand-to-mouth existence. The nature of clubs, particularly the smaller clubs, is such that there really are no economies of scale. The majority of the costs for much of the infrastructure, such as buildings and pitches, are fixed and do not fluctuate significantly with the number of members or the amount of activity that takes place in the club. In those circumstances, the only logical actions to take are those designed to increase income. As Ciaran said, some 45% of clubs have already increased their income through increasing membership fees. Clubs see themselves as the principal source of income for most of the time.

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