Donegal go-ahead for Centre of Excellence loan

DONEGAL clubs have sanctioned the county board to borrow €1.6m to develop a new GAA Centre of Excellence.

Clubs were unanimous in their support for the borrowing of funds at a specially convened meeting on Tuesday night.

The Donegal board estimate that it’ll cost around €3.6m in total to develop state of the art new facilities on a site at Convoy. They’re hopeful of securing €2m from GAA central funds leaving an outstanding figure of €1.6m.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Donegal chairman Sean Kelly said it would be ‘crazy not to go ahead and borrow the money’. Donegal chiefs are still waiting on full planning permission to develop the site but are optimistic it will be granted, clearing work to begin in January. It’s hoped to put in place two full size playing pitches as well as an all weather pitch with dressing-rooms and meeting rooms. Currently, county teams are reliant on clubs to provide facilities.