Call for Mayo board to resign

THE Mayo County Board should resign en masse or else the clubs in the county should remove them.

That’s the view of PJ Monaghan, the man who chaired the Finance and Fundraising committee as part of the Mayo GAA Strategic Action Plan. His call comes following revelations about the extent of the debt on MacHale Park in Castlebar with the board facing a repayment of €10m over 12 years on loans obtained from Ulster Bank and Croke Park.

Additional to that is the €1.6m the board owes to the main contractors, and for legal and architect’s fees. In total, the cost of the redevelopment is more than €18.25m.

Outgoing county board secretary Seán Feeney said the board “will be able to meet our obligations comfortably” if they can get the length of the term of the loans restructured.

However, Monaghan argued the time had come for the board to step aside, an interim board to be set-up and an independent finance committee with expert involvement to “prepare a proper financial plan and negotiate with Ulster Bank and Croke Park”.

Monaghan was part of the group set up under the leadership of Ballinrobe man Liam Horan, directed by the county board, to carry out a root and branch analysis of Mayo GAA.

Conflicts arose over some of the group’s recommendations. He argued that last week’s revelations show how important the recommendations issued earlier this year were.

“Can we realistically think that the individuals who run our affairs have the ability to act on our behalf any longer?” he said.

However outgoing Mayo GAA secretary Seán Feeney described Monaghan’s call as ‘silly’. “The [county] board is democratically elected... what has been said is silly in my view.”