Minister confirms IABA cuts have been postponed

Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers has revealed that proposed IABA cuts have been postponed.

The Minister revealed a 15% reduction in the IABA’s core funding for the year would be imposed back in August.

Minster Chambers announced the cuts after the national governing body for amateur boxing voted overwhelmingly to reject proposed governance reforms at the EGM.

There was also a threat of further cuts if recommended reforms were not adopted. However, the Minster has since revealed the relations are in a more ‘constructive space’ – and with 70% of the recommendations now accepted cuts are paused.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One earlier this week, Minster Chambers said: “Over the last two months there has been engagement between Sport Ireland and the IABA, and Sport Ireland have reported to me that good progress has been made and that now around 70% of the recommendations have been accepted.

“They have informed me that it’s a good basis for further discussion and engagement on the remaining matters, that the discussions are in a more constructive space.

“So if you take a step back, you’ve gone from 0% and an outright rejection to a point of progress of 70% and they now want to work through the remaining matters.

“And as minister, there are three options open to me. There’s the restoration of the funding that we’ve cut and we’re not at that point because we still have remaining matters that have to be worked through; there’s pausing further cuts to allow for the positive and constructive engagement to continue; or there’s to make further cuts and I don’t think we’re at that point – where we now have good engagement and I think a place where we can resolve the remaining matters around governance.

“So I welcome the fact that we’ve moved towards a more constructive space.”