The plan charts the course for Paralympic sports in Ireland up to 2025, including the 2020 and 2024 Paralympic Games.

Officially launched by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin, it sets out an ambitious target of a top-five finish in medals per capita at Tokyo 2020, improving to a top-three finish at Paris 2024.

It also demonstrates the high-performance remit of Paralympics Ireland, which has the stated vision for Irish athletes to win medals at the Paralympics Games and replaces the previous participation remit. 

Additionally, the plan defines the relationship between Paralympics Ireland and National Governing Bodies (NGBs), who are responsible for the participation and development sides of their sports.

Speaking at the launch of "Success Takes More", Paralympics Ireland President John Fulham said: "This plan puts the athletes at the centre of everything we do.

"They are the most important people in Paralympic sport.

"We want to enable athletes to deliver their best possible performances on the biggest stage of all.

"We will work with our NGBs to ensure athletes have the very best supports and systems in place as they progress towards their Paralympic medals dream."

The plan also lays out a new system for affiliated sports with the introduction of gold, silver and bronze tiers.

Gold sports are those that have their own sustainable systems in place and are consistently competing for and winning medals internationally.

Silver sports are those that have most of the systems in place and have a limited number of athletes competing at the highest levels, while bronze sports are those at the developmental stage.

Furthermore, the plan emphasises a further three pillars – driving leadership in sport, creating a sustainable Paralympics Ireland model and building the profile of the Paralympics in Ireland.

One of the most ambitious aspects is for the development of self-generated income to help fund the new plan.

The aim is for 40 per cent of Paralympics Ireland funding to be self-generated by 2021 with that number rising to 50 per cent by 2025.

"This plan is the culmination of two years' work and a very extensive consultation process with our stakeholders," Paralympics Ireland chief executive Miriam Malone said.

"We have set out some very ambitious goals on and off the field of competition, but we have also set out a clear path as to how those goals can be achieved.

"I am very much looking forward to implementing this plan over the coming six years and seeing the plan bear fruit on the podium at future Paralympic Games."

Among the other headline goals set out in the new report are medals in all gold sports at every Paralympic Games, a portfolio of six top-level commercial partners in place by 2021, leveraging Paralympics Ireland’s charitable status to raise additional funds by 2020 and establishing brand recognition metrics for Paralympics Ireland and Irish Para-athletes with the aim of achieving annual increases thereafter.

Also being targeted is a Memorandum of Understanding between Paralympics Ireland and every affiliated sport by 2019, multi-year service agreements being put in place to ensure appropriate athlete support services, achieving a customer satisfaction rating of 75 per cent or over with each affiliate annually and leading in the provision of reliable classification expertise to all affiliated sports.

Paralympics Ireland will concentrate especially on its three existing gold medal sports – athletics, swimming and cycling 

Irish swimmer Patrick Flanagan, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the men's freestyle 400 metres S6 event at last year's European Championships, told The Irish Times: "To see that the governing body’s goals are so completely aligned with mine around elite performance is huge.

"This could make that tiny difference between finishing fourth and on the podium."

Ireland won 11 medals, including four gold, at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

The country ranked 28th overall but fifth on the per capita scale.

It has won 226 Paralympic medals overall, comprising 66 gold, 66 silver and 94 bronze. 

The full strategic plan can be viewed by clicking here.