A significant number of Trinity’s sports clubs were hit with “drastic” cuts to their preliminary budgets from Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) this year, leaving some clubs “disheartened” that their successes are not being recognised and others with fears for their survival.
Figures obtained by The University Times, as well as conversations with members of several of the College’s sports clubs, reveal widespread cuts this year to the money that DUCAC allocates to clubs, as well as further concerns surrounding the difficulties many clubs experienced in their dealings with DUCAC.
Speaking to The University Times about the process by which clubs are allocated their budgets, outgoing DUCAC Senior Honorary Treasurer Brian Ó Ruairc – who was responsible for the allocation of this year’s budgets along with DUCAC Administrator Aidan Kavanagh and DUCAC Junior Honorary Treasurer Seán Canning – said the body requests that “all clubs submit their budget requests and accounts for the previous years in the form of profit and loss”.
Ó Ruairc said DUCAC “goes through each budget individually” and allocates funding “based on certain formulas, but within reason as well”.
Dublin University Ladies Boat Club (DULBC) faced another cut to its funding this year, meaning the club’s DUCAC funding has fallen by almost 50 per cent since 2015/16. In an email statement to The University Times, club treasurer Aoife McGranaghan said there had been an “overall decrease of €790” to DULBC’s funding since last year.
Figures obtained in a freedom of information request last year showed that DULBC had been allocated €12,660 in 2017/18, meaning it received €11,870 this year. In 2015/16, the club received funding of €22,355 from DUCAC.
Included in the cuts to DULBC’s budget is a 40 per cent reduction to the club’s coaching allocation, down from €2,500 to €1,500, as well as the removal of the club’s funding for its trip to the London Metropolitan Regatta. The club has been told that they can apply to DUCAC’s international fund to fund its trips.
Dublin University Aikido Club (DUAC) was also hit with a budget cut this year that the club says could leave its future “uncertain”. Last year, DUAC received approximately 52 per cent of the €2,000 funding it requested from DUCAC. Despite being informed by the body that this was a mistake, the budget allocation was not increased, though DUCAC has subsequently committed to amending this error. The club has endured cuts despite growing its membership and the receipt of internationally recognised kyu grades by many of its members in recent years.
In an email statement to The University Times, DUAC captain Sonia Boccai said that “the impact of the underpayment of budget means that while insurances are paid (this is the priority as aikido, like all martial arts carries a level of risk), the modest instructor fees go unpaid and further, the planned all-Ireland Inter-varsity Aikido Seminar is now impossible due to lack of budget. This is clearly an unacceptable situation”.
The budget allocated by DUCAC to Trinity Women’s Soccer, seen by The University Times, showed a fall of 33 per cent from last year, decreasing from €6,715 in 2017/18 to €4,456 this year. This included a 60 per cent cut to the club’s budget for coaching expenses and a 20 per cent decline in the funding it receives for travel expenses.
Dublin University Climbing Club (DUCC), which has won national intervarsity competitions in each of the last two seasons, has been forced to confront a €1,400 cutback to its budget from last year. This includes a 44 per cent deduction to the funding it receives for the hiring of external facilities, something the club’s captains say is crucial to its success. DUCC’s climbers need to practise on a variety of different climbing routes to prepare for competitions.
In the past, the club has received funding that covers travel and accommodation for intervarsities and at least two trips. This year, DUCAC is only financing travel and accommodation for intervarsities and one trip.
In a joint email statement to The University Times, captain Clíona Farrell and treasurer Alice Dolan said: “This year, we have already registered more than 580 members and it’s really disheartening that for one of the biggest clubs on campus, we’re often overlooked as we’re not a traditional Trinity sport.”
“Although we do appreciate the contribution that we get from DUCAC, we’d also like to know why clubs like ours are continuously facing drastic budget cuts, especially having almost 600 members and having represented the college, and won, at a national level at Intervarsities, the past two years”, Farrell and Dolan said.
DUCC’s issues with DUCAC funding have been compounded by the difficulties the club has encountered in its communication with the body. After providing DUCAC with an invoice for money needed to pay an overseas company in November 2017, DUCC’s captains told The University Times, that DUCAC had still failed to pay the company by August 2018. In addition, the climbing club did not receive any request from DUCAC in June for its budget requirements for this year. When DUCC contacted DUCAC the club was informed that the budget had been due a week before. After negotiations with DUCAC, the climbing club was permitted to submit its budget requirements late, but subsequently did not receive its allocation until September 18th, a week late.
For Dublin University Hockey Club (DUHC), a second consecutive budget cut – which includes a curtailing of the club’s coaching allocation – means the club will not be able to afford to pay for a coach of its second team. DUHC will have to redirect other funding areas towards coaching in order to keep on the club’s current first-team coach. The club’s budget allocations from the last three years were obtained last year in a freedom of information request.
In an email statement to The University Times, DUHC captain Ben Arrowsmith said that the club’s funding had been “stripped back in all areas, drastically so in some”.
Arrowsmith said that the club had met an “even more significant drop in our funding across almost every section of our application”, after seeing its “allocation cut consistently over the last number of years”.
Dublin University Taekwondo Club’s (DUTC) athletes may also have to confront the possibility of losing their coach, after experiencing “substantial” cuts.
Speaking to The University Times, DUTC captain Paul Conway said continued cuts could put a strain on the club’s ability to “stick around” into the future. Conway said the club would have to attempt to “overcome” the cutbacks by fundraising efforts.
In an email statement to The University Times, William Doyle, the captain of Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC), confirmed that the club’s budget allocation “has been cut again this year”.
Doyle said: “I understand that there are financial constraints but it is disappointing as ultimately, this is putting more and more financial pressure on the athletes.”
Speaking to The University Times, Ó Ruairc said that the cuts this year were made “to bring our finances in line as best we could”.
Ó Ruairc said there were no clubs “that were cut more than others, if you know what I mean. There were no one or two clubs that were cut substantially”. He said the cut was “fairly uniform”, and was “just to keep our spending in line with our office budgets”.
In an email statement to The University Times, Kavanagh declined to comment, noting that it wouldn’t be right for him to discuss club budgets before they were finalised.
DUCAC has endured financial difficulties for some years. In 2017, The University Times revealed that the organisation’s reserves had dwindled from just over €337,300 in 2011 to now just over €22,000 in 2016. This was largely due to a contribution of €250,000 that the body made to the redevelopment of Trinity’s sports complex in Santry. DUCAC announced at its AGM this year that it had paid off what it owed to the facility’s refurbishment.
