GAA will borrow to continue with various projects

THE GAA is prepared to borrow millions of euro in order to continue with various infrastructure projects nationwide if the recession continues and other sources of funding remain unavailable.

The decision was made at a recent meeting of the Management Committee in light of the suspended Sports Capital Programme and the soon-to-be discontinued renting of Croke Park by the IRFU and FAI.

The cost of using the 82,000 capacity stadium is in the region of €1.35m and 26 internationals will have been played at the GAA HQ by the time the Aviva Stadium opens. That amounts to just over €35m in rent since 2007 while GAA Director General Páraic Duffy said last month that the Sports Capital Programme, sourced from lottery income, had been worth €30m to the organisation in a good year.

The Sports Capital Programme was controversially suspended by the government last year and there has been no indication if it will be reintroduced.

“These are tough economic times but we in the GAA are very focused and confident about what we want to do,” Leinster Council chairman Seamus Howlin explained yesterday. “We are an ambitious and focused organisation.”

The focus, in terms of infrastructure, is primarily on centres of excellence built by many counties in the last decade while numerous other projects are underway.

“The lottery funding is finished for now and that has put pressure on counties that want to have training centres so we are belting away with our plans and, as far as we are concerned, we have things well thought out.”

Deciding to borrow money is one thing, securing it in the current economic climate is another, but Howlin is confident the GAA will have little difficulty in securing the funds from the banking sector should they need them.

“We will find the money between the whole lot of them. We have committed to spending our soccer and rugby money over the last number of years.

“That is ring-fenced for development work anyway so if we have to top that up with more money to do other things then we are prepared to do it.”

The GAA has already devoted millions of euro to similar projects. The number of training centres to have received association funds is well into double figures but there are apparently many more still in need of financial backing.

“At last week’s meeting I think we allocated €13m to counties all around Ireland,” said Howlin. “In Leinster alone, we have a project in Clontarf and Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford county boards have plans put together Darver (in Louth) is a beautiful place recently done.

“We would like to have something like that in every county. Now, maybe all counties wouldn’t aspire to that level but our intention is to spend the money we got from the rugby and soccer games on infrastructural projects so that counties can have the best of training facilities available.”