GAA planning new 'high-performance licence' in bid to tackle 'juggernaut' intercounty team costs

GAA president Jarlath Burns had earlier told Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy the GAA had seen spending of '€44m and rising substantially' on intercounty teams and this figure 'would not be sustainable in a fully integrated GAA'.

The GAA is planning a new "high-performance licence" in a bid to tackle "juggernaut" intercounty team costs, which could reach an "unsustainable" €120m annually.

The association's president Jarlath Burns told TDs and senators a new licence would be proposed at the GAA's congress in a bid to bring down costs.

"We simply won't be able to sustain an organisation that is spending €120m every year on preparing county teams. That won't work for any of us," Mr Burns told the Oireachtas sports committee.

Last week, the Irish Examiner reported that inter-county team spending by Munster counties in 2025 could breach €12m.

Consolidated accounts show the six counties’ aggregate expenditure on teams has again hit eight figures, having exceeded €11m last year, and reaching €10.774m in 2023.

Cork may have reined in their expenditure to the tune of €178,000, but All-Ireland senior football champions Kerry and Limerick are up a combined €697,629 on 2024.

Liam MacCarthy Cup winners Tipperary will be expected to top their 2024 figure of €2.175m, although Clare should be down from €1.556m after their senior hurlers finished up two months earlier. Waterford costs are not expected to vary much from last year’s total of €1.288m.

Mr Burns said this was one area of "apprehension" among county boards, but the GAA's amateur ethos had been a "main plank" of his presidency.

Asked by committee chair Alan Kelly about the cost of county teams, Mr Burns said the spending was "a juggernaut", but the GAA was a "governance organisation which does not have a regulatory role".

This, he hopes, will change with a new licence.

"At congress, we have a new proposal that will redefine what it means to be an amateur athlete at elite level. It is also going to obligate counties to apply for a high-performance licence to run their county teams. Under that, it will be populated with lots of things. 

There will be a greater framework around the close season, around the amount of money being spent, particularly given the interest the Revenue have shown in matters around the payment of people who are around county teams.

"We hope by that evolutionary process that we will start to get costs down."

Mr Burns said the GAA "has to take members with us" and he could not predict if that proposal would pass.

Mr Burns had earlier told Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy the GAA had seen spending of "€44m and rising substantially" on intercounty teams and this figure "would not be sustainable in a fully integrated GAA". 

He said he hoped the organisation would pass an amateur status report at congress next year. He said the biggest challenge to integration was resistance from the county boards.

Speaking on the integration of the GAA with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and Camogie Association, former president Mary McAleese said the formal integration of Gaelic games would be "one of the most significant transformations in the history of Irish sport" and would leave the new GAA with a membership of more than one million.

Mrs McAleese, chair of the integration steering group, said: "Ultimately, our ambition is simple yet profound: to create one family for all Gaelic games, from nursery programmes to schools and from club to senior inter-county players. Every generation, every gender, every community connected under one banner.

"This is a seismic moment in the life of Gaelic games and in our nation’s history. We are confident that through collaboration, courage and vision, we will deliver not just a stronger sporting organisation but a stronger Ireland."