He said: "Our grant from the Irish Sports Council (ISC) has been heavily cut – but this is in line with other sports as they themselves (ISC) have had their monies cut.

 

"But there are proposals in the Bord Snip [the cost-cutting board of the Irish Government] report to cut €17 million (£14.5 million) from sports and possibly close down the Department of Sports and amalgamate it with another department.
 

"If these proposals are put in place it would be an absolute disaster for the London Games, a complete flop.

"We wouldn’t have the funds to support the athletes to the required level.

"It is no good turning the money back on in 2012.

"Now is when the money is needed.

"Now is when the hard work is being done.

"We are three years from the Games in London.
 

"We all expect to be out of this economic downturn at that stage and when the Olympics arrive there will be a massive feel good factor.

"However, the public will have very high expectations of the Irish team.

"The problem is that if these cuts are continued it will have a draconian effect on the preparation of our athletes for the Games."

 

The last time the Olympics were held in London, in 1948, a dispute between rival Irish athletics governing bodies saw many Irish competitors barred from taking part and the country failed to win a medal.
 

Hickey does not want to waste this opportunity.

 

He said: "These Games will be so different to anything before.

"This will be the nearest we will have to a home Olympics.

"The language, the climate, the food is all the same.

"The Irish interest in the Games will be bigger than anytime in the past.

 

"But because of that the expectation will also be greater than anything before."
 

The proposed cuts could also affect plans to upgrade the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown and affect Ireland's ability to attract overseas teams to train there before London 2012, Hickey warned.

He said: "I am on the Board in Abbotstown.

"It is a great venture.

"We were hoping to continue our developments there and the creation of a state of the art training centre.

"But this year all the funding for that stopped.

"It is a disaster.
 

"Not alone did we want to have it in place for our own athletes but also it would have been very attractive to foreign teams who would view Ireland as a perfect area to fine-tune their preparations."

"I’ve had queries [to train there before London 2012] from the USA, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.

"Competitors don’t like to be finalising their preparation too close to where they will be competing.

"So Ireland would be perfect.

"We have the likes of UCD (University College Dublin) and the National Training Centre in Limerick but it would be a huge benefit, and would make massive financial sense, if we had a centre second to none in Dublin only an hour away from London."

 

Hickey, who is also President of the European Olympic Committee (EOC), fears that the proposed cut-backs could hamper the progress of a generation of young athletes.

 

He said: "I was at the European Youth Olympics in Finland last month where we won seven medals.

 

"These are the stars of the future.

 

"But if we don’t give them the support which they require now, their development will be stunted and we wouldn’t see the benefits of the work that has been done for years to come.

 

"The World Youth Olympics are taking place next year [in Singapore], and any cutbacks in the coming months will certainly have a huge impact from an Irish perspective."

 

Ireland's best performance at an Olympics was in Los Angeles in 1932 when the team was ranked 16th overall in the medals table thanks to two gold medals from Pat O'Callaghan in the hammer and Bob Tisdall in the 400 metres hurdles.

 

Ireland's last gold medals came at the Atlanta Games in 1996 when swimmer Michelle Smith won three titles, although her performances were tainted two years later when she was banned for four years for manipulating an out-of-competition drugs test.

 

Cian O'Connor did win did the individual show jumping at the Athens Olympics in 2004 but was stripped of his medal after Waterford Crystal, his horse, tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.

 

At the Games in Beijing last year Ireland were ranked 62nd with three medals, a silver and two bronze, all won in the boxing ring.

 

Hickey is hoping to improve on these performances at London 2012 and beyond.

 

He said: "We have a very, very strong plans in place for our Olympic efforts.

 

"We have just brought Sonia O’Sullivan (pictured) onboard and she will play a key role with the athletes.

 

"We have sat down and marked out our strategies.

 

"It has to be funded.

 

"Everything is going well on our end.

 

"But all of that good work could be undone.

 

"The big question is what An Bord Snip will do?

 

"But someone should look forward to London 2021 and ring fence monies for this area.

 

"It will be a complete flop otherwise.

 

"The London Games has to be an exception.

 

"We will be very strong fighting our corner."