Irish Examiner view: Who loses out?

GAA spending

Limerick battle Kilkenny in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final in Croke Park, Dublin.

Last week it was Galway and this week Limerick. The two counties revealed they had spent over €2m on intercounty team expenses this year.

The Connacht side was unsuccessful in its bid for the All-Ireland football title, losing the final to Kerry, but spent €2.16m on its county teams. Limerick, of course, won a third All-Ireland senior hurling title in a row this year and the county’s final bill for the season was €2.29m.

Both counties will stress that that headline figure covers all teams in hurling and football, and not just the flagship senior sides. (The bill for the Limerick team’s holiday is included in its total as well).

However, that does not change the fact that these are staggering sums of money being spent on preparing amateur teams. A simple acknowledgement of inflation means that the bills of today are exponentially bigger than those of 20 or 30 years ago, let alone further back in time, but the simple question that must be asked is whether this spending is sustainable in the medium term, never mind the long term. Counties have experienced financial difficulties in the past because of capital project over-runs, but spending these sums on team preparation has particularly ominous implications.

In broader terms, whether such spending aligns with the ethos of an organisation with games’ promotion as its raison d’être is a knottier question.

Basic bookkeeping principles suggest that if those sums are being spent on county teams, other areas are losing out. And will continue to lose out.