Minister warns player grants facing cutbacks

Government sports chief Michael Ring has vowed to battle to retain the GAA player grants scheme, though a cut of some form seems inevitable.

The Junior Sports Minister was in miserly mood at yesterday’s awards ceremony for volunteers in Irish sport. Speaking at the Aviva Stadium, he appeared to send out a warning to the GAA when he stated that, in future, applications for capital funding for “shared facilities” will be given priority.

And though he vowed to personally fight for a separate new three-year deal for the player grants scheme, he admitted that even if he’s successful, some form of cut is on the way.

Indeed, there is no guarantee, as yet, that the 2012 payments will be paid out.

The grants scheme was the brainchild of the Gaelic Players Association and when introduced in 2008 was worth €3.5m.

It was subsequently slashed by nearly €2.5m and currently sits at just over €1m — meaning it’s likely to drop below the million mark for the first time in 2013, if retained.

“Because of the economic situation we have, we don’t have the funding that we had before,” said Ring. “But I am still prepared to do a deal with them (the GAA) on that basis. But we don’t have the same funding we had before.”

Asked how committed he was to preserving the grants, which have been running for five seasons, Ring said it was a priority of his.

“I’m anxious for it to continue,” he continued. “I’m also anxious that if we do a deal, we do it for three years. But it’s not simple now. It’s very serious economic times.”

As for the shared facilities issue, Ring appeared to indicate that the GAA’s policy of excluding rugby and soccer from its club and county grounds may count against them in these straightened times.

“The priority this time will be people with shared facilities,” he said. “We want the facilities used (by multiple sports).”

Tipperary hurler Padraic Maher is one who would clearly benefit from a player grant, as he is currently unemployed. In fact, the stylish defender and former Hurler of the Year nominee says his club Thurles Sarsfields’ march to Sunday’s Munster final against De La Salle is the only thing keeping him in the country this winter.

He is out of work since graduating from a fitness course at University of Limerick. Before that he was training to be a plumber but left the trade, due to the downturn in the economy.

“Only for I’m hurling for Sarsfields at the moment, I would have left the country for a couple of months and tried to work somewhere else until January and hopefully something might be there when you’d come back,” said Maher, twice an All Star.

“I’d love to go travelling (for work) but I’d find it hard to leave the hurling,” he continued.

Maher’s former All-Ireland winning manager, Liam Sheedy, also attended yesterday’s ceremony. The Portroe man was one of the awards recipients, gaining a ‘Special Recognition’ merit.

He had better news for Maher, insisting Tipp hurling isn’t in crisis, despite their dismal championship exit at the hands of Kilkenny, and predicting they will bounce back to glory under new manager Eamon O’Shea, a coach in 2010.

Sheedy pointed out that the Premier are still back-to-back Munster champions and outside of “25 minutes against Kilkenny”, were right on the pace all summer.

“Up to then, Tipp were right up there, I don’t see crisis or anything like that,” said Sheedy, who reckons O’Shea can get the Premier County firing again.

“Eamon has the skill to do any job. When I was there, we had three people involved with the team, myself, Eamon and Michael Ryan. But we never looked at ourselves as managers, coaches or selectors per se. We just came together and did all we could do for the team.

“The role won’t make any difference to Eamon. He’s excellent at what he does. He’ll build a really good rapport with the players. He has excellent back up as well in Paudie O’Neill as coach and then Michael Ryan as selector.

“They’ll bring a huge amount to the team. As a Tipperary man, I’d be really looking forward to 2013.”