‘Frivolous’ DRA cases costing board

LONGFORD secretary Peter O’Reilly has stressed the need for the GAA to protect county board finances by increasing the deposit which clubs are required to lodge in the event of a request for a hearing by the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).

Increasing the amount from €1,000 to €5,000, he feels, could eliminate “frivolous or mischievous cases” and cover a sizeable amount of the more realistic cost of a case in the event of an unsuccessful claim.

Set up as a “cost effective” arbitration service to resolve issues without having to resort to the courts, he believes the issue of liability for costs with the DRA needs to be addressed.

“In the main, DRA cases involve clubs as the claimant while the county board is the respondent either on its own or joined with a higher authority. Given the above scenario some county boards having lost a case are receiving invoices which they feel are grossly inflated and are expected to pay these costs,” he explains.

“But when the reverse happens, clubs are refusing to pay or pleading inability to pay even though they were aware when entering the process that they would be responsible for costs if they lost. A resolution of this scenario is vital as left unresolved it will give credence to a comment I heard that ‘the DRA will be more beneficial to clubs than the lottery ever was’.”

He said the biggest downside to his job in the past year has been the time wasted trying to defend the board against the perceived right of a minority of club representatives who “tried to drag out, slow down or even stall the workings/competitions of the GAA in Longford, be it through appeals or veiled threats of same, use of the DRA, withholding monies, non-acceptance of competition rules as laid down in the Official Guide etc.”

Elsewhere, he highlights the success of their senior hurlers in capturing the Lory Meagher Cup and qualifying for the Division Four League final, as well as the minor footballers winning the Leinster title. He also refers to their senior footballers dumping Mayo out of the championship and to the continued success of their Race Day, which in eight years has raised more than €1m.

Commenting that the senior footballers had a poor year overall, he recalls the controversy which erupted following their league outing against Limerick in the second round.

“The decision to award the game to Limerick following an incorrect interpretation of the experimental rules by the referee — who admitted to this in his official report — was an injustice which was further compounded by the Hearings Committee failure to allow our appeal. Would the same decision have been arrived at if some of the top counties were in a similar situation?’’