Lane: We don’t have €2m Croker cash ‘sitting in the bank’

THE CORK County Board insisted yesterday that it did not have €2 million earmarked for a GAA centre of excellence in the city “sitting in the bank”, contrary to suggestions made at the Cork GAA clubs forum report launch on Sunday night.

Cork County Board PRO Ger Lane said that while €2 million was the amount that Croke Park would be allocating to Cork from the money generated by rugby and soccer internationals in GAA headquarters, that money could not be drawn down until plans for the centre of excellence were at a more advanced stage.

“That’s available to the county board when the development gets underway,” said Lane. “That’s the commitment we’ve received from Croke Park – the money will be available at that stage, but we certainly don’t have that money sitting in the bank.

“It’s been set aside for us and once the development is sanctioned and gets underway we will receive the funding.’’

Lane confirmed that the centre of excellence would be located in the city and added that ongoing negotiations with Cork City Council about a site for the centre were “cordial on both sides”, though he could not put a time frame on the conclusion of those negotiations. “The negotiations are progressing,” said Lane. “For commercial reasons we don’t want to get into the detail of the discussions, obviously, and we can’t say when they’ll conclude.

“But it’s fair to say that they’re progressing, and they’re cordial on both sides. Certainly as soon as we have information we will be making that information available.”

Club members at the launch of the Cork GAA club forum final report on Sunday night were told that the matter had come up during a meeting between representatives of the forum and members of the Cork County Board executive on the development of the GAA in Cork. Those in attendance at the launch of the report on Sunday night were given seven separate motions which are to be brought forward to the County Convention of the Cork County Board next month.

Those motions relate to matters such as junior club representation, improved consultation between clubs and their delegates and issues relating to meetings of the Cork County Board. Those issues which arose in the acrimonious stand-off earlier in the year involving the Cork senior hurling panel and then manager Gerald McCarthy.