“It is pure frustration that for five years we have been led along with a bit of string.”

As Gonzo noted back in December

IF this contrite statement is anything to go by, DUP Sports Minster Nelson McCausland must have hauled Sport NI chief executive Eamonn McCartan over the coals for listing off on TV reasons why we weren’t attracting Olympic interest. McCartan told the BBC that no Olympic teams had committed to train here for the 2012 Games due to our violent image, the threat from dissidents, geographical location, travel costs and access to Olympics venues.

But as the BBC reports today, the NI Sports Minister, the DUP’s Nelson McCausland’s, draft spending plans have just made the job of attracting any Olympic interest to Northern Ireland all the more difficult, if not impossible.  From the BBC report

Plans to build five state-of-the-art sports centres in NI in the countdown to the 2012 Olympics have been shelved after a £50m government budget cut.

The projects affected are a cycling velodrome at Downpatrick, tennis centre at Hillsborough, sailing facility at Ballyholme, athletics track in Antrim and basketball centre in Lisburn.

Tens of thousands of pounds have gone into developing plans.

But the government said it no longer has the money to build the centres.

BBC NI business correspondent Kevin Magee said the decision was due to significantly reduced funding for the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the recent budget.

“This represents a major set back for a host of sporting associations who are now among the first casualties of the spending cuts” he said.

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