"I understand an application for funding under the 2007 Scheme has been received in respect of pitch development, floodlighting and renovation of existing juvenile dressing rooms, " said O'Donoghue to the Laune Rangers' faithful. "Applications are being assessed, and I hope to be in a position to announce allocation of grants in the near future."

Five days later, he was as good as his word. When his department released the latest figures on Thursday (the announcement is usually a summer affair unless there's an election) both clubs were put down for another 100,000 each. The minister didn't forget his own either. St Mary's of Cahersiveen . . . of which he is former chairman . . .

trousered 170,000, taking its haul over three years to an impressive 650,000. Other outfits from his patch lucky enough to complete a threepeat of successful applications were Waterville ( 390,000 since 2005) and Glenbeigh Sports Hall ( 395,000).

The sight of O'Donoghue raining money upon the half of Kerry charged with returning him in the forthcoming general election has become as traditional a sporting ritual as the county footballers making their annual run at Sam Maguire. Between the 200,000 given to Beaufort GAA and the 400 made available to the Kingdom Archery club, Kerry South received a whopping 2.32m on this occasion. That's more than 16 other entire counties. If that sounds familiar, it's because last year the minister's bailiwick outdrew 17 counties.

Twelve months before that, 18 counties were less well got than his fortunate half of Kerry. At least the figure is going down.

According to the 2006 Census, Meath is one of the fastest growing counties in the country with a population in excess of 162,000. Kerry South is a constituency containing less than half as many people. Yet, Meath received 100,000 less in grants this week. That's difficult to figure out unless you run the numbers through a political calculator. Having narrowly missed out on two out of three seats in Kerry South last time, Fianna Fail must be confident O'Donoghue's running mate Tom Fleming can get over the hump this time around. Anything else would just be ingratitude on the part of the electorate.

It might sound churlish given the last two governments have spent more on sports facilities than any previous administrations but the politicisation of the sports capital grant system damages what began as a laudable initiative. A system established so that every club, big and small, might aspire to building its own facilities has degenerated into an episode of pork barrel politics that makes a mockery of the departmental claim the money is doled out on an equitable points basis.

If your application scores a certain amount of points as tallied by objective civil servants, you receive a grant. A fine theory that appears to be utterly undermined by reality.

If the points system is so objective how come it managed to always come down in favour of Donegal and Kildare when Jim McDaid held the sports portfolio and Charlie McCreevy was in charge of the national purse strings? Between 1999 and 2002, those counties were first and second. Strangely enough, once the ministers moved on, they slumped to 24th and 26th. The objective points system that once worked so well for clubs from Letterkenny and Kill suddenly began to fail them. Lo and behold, it began to work objectively for the constituents of their replacements.

O'Donoghue's home county moved into first place once he took over the brief in 2003. Brian Cowen's Offaly has inexplicably risen from 26th to sixth since he became Minister for Finance.

These and other prodigious leaps are contained in a series of league tables produced by the UCC Department of Economics. Led by All-Ireland winning Cork hurler John Considine, this group of independent researchers have once more highlighted glaring anomalies in the distribution of grants. The most amazing thing is that Kerry are only third. Leitrim and Sligo are above them. An odd pairing? Well, only if you don't view the carving up of the sports capital pie through the prism of electoral politics.

These are two of the three counties that make up the newly-created three-seater constituencies of Sligo-North Leitrim and Roscommon-South Leitrim. Having averaged less than 500,000 per annum between 1998 and 2004, Leitrim has scored over 2m in the three years since the Constituency Commission redrew the political boundaries.

This could be dismissed as the stuff of conspiracy theories except Roscommon lies eighth in the per capita rankings, and Longford, one half of another new constituency, is fourth. Meanwhile, Westmeath, now joined at the hip with Longford in what is termed the most competitive four-seaters in the country, somehow managed to double its allocation since last year. Strange that.

* The per capita funding table is part of a forthcoming Department of Economics, UCC, Working Paper, by John Considine, Frank Crowley, Sinead Crowley and Marie O'Connor.