Munster Council hand Cork €3.75m for Páirc Uí Chaoimh redevelopment boost

The Cork County Board has received a further €3.75 million towards the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh as the Munster Council last night became the latest donors to the stadium’s reconstruction.

The contribution means Cork need only raise €16.25m towards the €70m project.

The Government have already pledged €30m to the 45,000-capacity stadium in the form of a grant, while Central Council last month confirmed funding of €20m.

Cork have already stated they will commit €10m of their own savings with the remainder raised through 10-year tickets and concerts in 2017.

The stadium is expected to be completed early that year.

The Munster Council’s funding caps a remarkable funding drive by the Cork County Board towards the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The council also announced €2.5m will be distributed among the other five Munster counties with the introduction of a five-year budgetary framework which will see no further investment in major capital projects until 2020.

In a statement last night, Munster chairman Robert Frost said of Páirc Uí Chaoimh: “This is a major redevelopment for the GAA in Cork and Munster and will see this stadium transformed into a state of the art facility.

“The Government and Central Council have provided generous grants towards this facility and now the Munster Council is doing the same.

“The €2.5m package for Kerry, Tipperary, Clare, Waterford and Limerick will see €0.5m made available to each county to be used on projects such as works on major county grounds and centres of excellence.”

Meanwhile, GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell last night claimed three of the four provincial competitions in senior Gaelic football are “broken”.

Speaking to Newstalk’s Off The Ball, Farrell said: “I think the whole thing needs to be torn up and worked on again.

“I think ultimately there is an issue with the Championship structures.

“The competitions in three provinces are broken and that trend has been in place for some time now.

“I’d definitely like to see it try and operate on another model when there is more meaningful game in a Championship sense then factor in dedicated weekends for club activity. One weekend a month where it’s up to the county boards to get their act together to put in place club championship programmes.”