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Abstract
In the last five years, the public funding of large scale sports facilities in Ireland has been the subject of investigations by the Attorney General, the Comptroller and Auditor General and government appointed independent consultants. During the same period there has been a growing scent of sports pork from the allocation of National Lottery funded sports capital grants for smaller sports facilities around the country. Public choice economists, with their assumption of self‐interested political actors pursuing their preferences through the political process, would not be surprised by these events. This paper explains how the public choice perspective offers, the best explanation of sports capital funding in Ireland.
“I am lucky enough to be the first Minister for Finance in over fifty years to bring in an overall Budget surplus. I suppose it is not surprising that the very mention of budget surplus has disturbed the discipline and restraint, which underpin the conditions that led to the budget surplus in the first place.” (Charlie McCreevy in his budget speech of December 2nd 1998)