Galway not a ‘basket case’, insists treasurer

Galway GAA treasurer Mike Burke says the county’s finances are now stable after two tough years, and he insists neither the county football nor hurling teams were ever left wanting when it came to funding.

According to Burke, who took control of the county’s finances in 2017, the €1.6million Galway GAA spent on preparing their football and hurling teams in 2019 was more than All-Ireland champions Dublin forked out.

County board delegates were presented with the annual accounts on Thursday night ahead of next week’s convention and it was revealed that Galway debt has decreased from €3.5million in 2017 to €2million at the moment.

Burke insisted the county is not ‘a basket case’ and their finances are now stable and manageable.

“I understood clearly the challenges and there was going to be no quick-fix to our financial problems. But there are major improvements in the financial management position of Galway GAA,” said Burke.

“I can say, without contradiction, that at the present time we are arguably the most regulated GAA county in Ireland from that perspective.

“Our financial position has been stabilised and we are progressing well with the reduction of debt.

There is a lot of negative publicity out there and it is coming from people who do not know the facts. Galway is not a basket case.

"There are other counties that owe way more than Galway does and we are well capable of handling our debt.

"We dealt with the Mountain South situation, we sold Mountain South.

“As well, we paid back our debt for tickets to Croke Park and other outstanding issues. We dealt with the Connacht Council.

"We owed them a large sum of money. And I can say this morning they owe us money.”

Hurling manager Micheál Donoghue and football boss Kevin Walsh both left their roles after a disappointing 2019, and the failure of both teams to progress to the latter stages of the championship has left a ‘black hole’ according to Burke.

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“Even in a bad year we cannot rely on our teams to progress,” he added in an interview with Galway Bay FM.

“This year we got caught out when we didn’t expect them to be knocked out early. Then when they get knocked out we are left with a black hole.

“We are probably the busiest GAA county in Ireland. We are probably the number one dual-county. And our teams, even though our senior teams didn’t progress beyond June and July we spent €1.6million on our teams.

“Financial support for our senior hurling and football teams has never been an issue. €1.6 million is a huge figure when you compare it to Dublin, who are up there with €1.4 million.

"When you don’t progress — it’s obvious from the accounts — you automatically lose roughly about €200,000 from headquarters in grants. Fundraising become a major issue then.

“We dropped €720,000 from the previous year.”