Future of player grants scheme in doubt

THE future of the GAA inter-county player grants scheme looks increasingly uncertain with confirmation yesterday that it will not be included in the government’s 2009 grant package for sport due to be announced next week.

According to a spokesperson for the Irish Sports Council (ISC), which is responsible for distributing the government monies, the GAA player grants scheme is not considered a core issue and will instead be addressed later in the year.

The ISC is currently in the process of finalising the 2009 funding levels for the various National Governing Bodies (NGBs) while an announcement on High Performance grants is expected in mid-February.

Both budgets were due to be revealed last month but the worsening economic situation and the need to shave €2bn off Exchequer spending has prompted a recalculation in all government departments.

News of the player grants scheme’s absence from the upcoming announcement was met with surprise by the Gaelic Player Association (GPA) who rejected the suggestion that it was not a ‘core’ concern.

The delay in addressing the scheme’s future comes three months after Sports Minister Martin Cullen’s assertion that it would need to be considered in the context of the worsening economic climate.

“I do not have unlimited funds,” the Minister told the Dáil in November.

GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell has already accepted that the €3.5m received in the first raft of payments to 1,800 footballers and hurlers last year will have to be reduced in line with the 8% decline already pinpointed for sports funding this year.

“They may delay it because the grants funding doesn’t get distributed until later in the year anyway,” said a GPA spokesperson. With the budget the way it is they may be down to trying to see can they pick up further funding down the line.

“Everybody is expecting bad news. It is just a case of how bad for most bodies. We will have to wait and see, deal with it as best we can when things happen. If they do delay an announcement on our funding we will have to deal with that.”

The original sum of €3.5m had been allocated to the scheme in November 2007 following agreement between the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, the GAA, the ISC and the GPA.

The first individual payments were made last December with players receiving sums ranging from €1,400 to €2,500 depending on the amount of appearances made for their county.

After lengthy deliberations, a convoluted system was agreed upon whereby the grants were administered by the ISC on behalf of the government and distributed by the GAA.

No-one is likely to escape the pinch. It was announced last week that there will be no funding for sports capital grants in 2009, the horse and greyhound fund is down 9% and the budget for local swimming pools has lost €2m.

The National Sports Campus has also been affected.

There has been no funding provided to date to advance phase one of the development this year. Minister Cullen is in discussions with the Minister for Finance about allocating funding with which to move it forward on a phased basis.