The five GAA presidential candidates outline their hopes for the future
All but Walsh, who ran three years ago, will be attempting to become only the fourth man to be elected Uachtarán first time around after Paddy Buggy (1981), Seán Kelly (2002), and Nickey Brennan (‘05). emailed each of them five questions. Here are their responses:
Primarily, I have extensive experience and a proven track record in the crucial areas of GAA administration and development. My empathy with club affairs and my familiarity with all aspects of the association derive from a lifetime of involvement in my roles as club secretary and coach, county secretary and chairman, Connacht President and my chairmanship of many key national committees. Informed by our core values, I have a clear vision for the future, and a commitment to teamwork, strategic planning, and development based on principles of best practice. I intend to target the promotion of the Irish language and cultural activities.
I believe the combination of my experience and track record of effective work at all levels position me well to serve as Uachtarán. From the time I became Secretary of my club at 17 years of age, I have been involved in the Association on a daily basis and I have an excellent understanding of the challenges facing all units of the GAA. I have shown strong financial stewardship at county and provincial level. I am a good listener, work very well with other people and can build and lead teams to take on challenges. I am not afraid to make tough decisions, which is a key trait for any President.
I made a promise to myself when I decided to run for the presidency that I would honour the integrity of the office by not running down any of the other candidates. I think all of us seeking this office have given a lifetime of service to the GAA starting with our clubs and moving forward from there, and it has been a great constant and comfort to us. I can only speak of my own record in driving improvements wherever I have been involved and especially in Leinster in the last three years.
I never went into any job that I wasn’t prepared to give 100%, whether it’s at the highest or lowest level. My motivation at all times has been clear, what is best for the Association is best for my club, parish, and community. I’ve never asked anybody to do a job which I wasn’t prepared to do myself. Moreover, in a smaller county such as Longford, there might not always be the same level of attraction at volunteering to become part of the county board since we haven’t enjoyed the success of many other counties. I’ve always been very willing and proud to serve my club, county, and province.
Love for your club and passion for the GAA are natural requisites for any potential President, but experience is the essential requirement. I believe that I have that experience, gained over many years at every level of our Association, starting at grassroots level with my club as Secretary, then Chairman for 12 years, while still a player; continuing as County Development Officer for 10 years, an additional 10 as County Board Chairman and a further three as Munster Council Chairman, also serving on National Committees for Infrastructure, Coaching, and Games and currently National Referee Development Committee Chairman. My experience has made me a good listener with the ability to bring people with me.
:
As County Chairman, I successfully led the €11 million Pearse Stadium redevelopment project thus ensuring a much-needed facility for future generations. My success as Galway Chairman and Secretary and Connacht President in leading effective administrations is based on my innate ability to engender cooperation. As Galway secretary and later as chairman, our All-Ireland hurling and football successes are foremost memories. Achievements such as coaching and managing my clubs to National Féile successes and seeing former schoolboy players winning All-Ireland minor medals, their progress as seniors and receiving All-Star awards brought a sense of fulfilment.
While chairman of Clare County Board: appointing Ger Loughnane, Mike McNamara, Tony Considine and Colm Flynn as the Clare management team at end of 1994 and the subsequent Munster and All Ireland senior titles. Won 1992 Munster Football championship when Clare vice-Chair and team liaison officer. While chairman of Munster Council: putting in place a 10-year budgetary framework to fund expenditure from the Munster council to the counties, and reorganising the post-primary school structures in Munster in 2013 and appointing full-time servicing officer for schools. Maybe a slight regret we didn’t win more in Clare in the late 1990s but lady luck was not always with us!
I firmly believe that any person’s greatest success is still ahead of them. I don’t believe people should dwell on failure — but rather that they should learn lessons from any such experiences. The GAA faces massive challenges in the years ahead — challenges that may not have been even envisaged a few short years ago. Even now we look at world events, European events — and they will all impact on our organisation in some way in the future. The greatest success will be keeping the organisation moving forward and thriving in an era of increasing uncertainty and unpredictability.
On a micro-level, apart from playing and serving in every role possible for my club, Newtowncashel, my six years as Coaching and Development Officer in Longford saw us put structures in place to provide the springboard for a historic Leinster minor title in 2002. I ensured the finance was in place to continue this work — which allows Longford underage teams punch above their weight — by spearheading a fundraising committee which has raised almost €2 million for Longford in the last 15 years. As Leinster Council chairperson, we put structures in place to cope with a bitter economic crash and stabilise the finances in some instances, improve structures and, above all, to assist and listen at all times.
Success is difficult to measure and is usually left for other people to determine. However, the things I am most proud of in my capacity as a GAA official include the stewardship of my club, Moyvane, and my role in working with the clubs of Kerry as Development Officer, an experience which I found very personally rewarding. However, I was very disappointed with being unable to secure grounds to start the building for our Centre of Excellence. Also, naturally, the disappointment of being unsuccessful in my bid for Úachtarán three years ago, which I must admit has made my resolve greater to succeed this time around.
The current regulations and protocols in regard to the reimbursement and payment of expenses to team managers are very effective in achieving control and adherence to our amateur status requirements. The commitment to the team budget and signing the managers and players charter are taken very seriously by all County Board principal officers. I am committed to the continued pursuance of and, if necessary, enhancement of these protocols to protect the amateur status code. Regarding an extended issue relating to county team expenditure, I am concerned at the escalating costs arising from the ever increasing backroom team supports.
The Association has set out a clear policy on this in the last number of years and this has improved the situation, although there is still work to be done. It is primarily a matter for each county board to address as part of prudent management of its finances. However, the overall costs of inter-county teams remain a challenge for many counties. I would like to see some restrictions in terms of maximum panel sizes and controlling the costs of backroom teams because I think there are unnecessary costs being incurred. Excessive panel sizes restrict club activity and availability of players to clubs and counties need to agree criteria with managers on this.
This has always been a thorny issue. All clubs and County Boards have their own audits on an annual basis so therefore we have to trust our individual units that nothing is going on that shouldn’t be going on. However, it would be innocent to think there are not some managers benefiting from lucrative payments or benefits in kind. The club scene is of great concern, where it is obvious that certain individuals are clearly on a circuit. The solution lies in the hands of the membership not to go down this road.
I fundamentally disagree with payment to managers. As a GAA volunteer, I believe that success cannot be bought, it can only be earned. Notwithstanding that, expenses should always be recompensed to ensure that no individual is out of pocket. It’s important to emphasise that many managers are not paid. It’s very hard to stop teams which are intent on paying for the services of an individual, or a backroom team, to do so. A method will always be found to ‘compensate’, be it through a separate fundraising committee, a sponsor or such like. I would question the need for the numbers of people involved in certain inter-county backroom teams.
Unfortunately, there is no proof that this has ever actually happened, which of course, makes finding a solution difficult. My personal belief is that if we could enhance our current coaching programme for managers, within clubs, allowing managers to developed and progress from within, and to attain senior management accreditation it would enhance the situation leading to outside managers become a rarity rather than the norm. This will not happen until we have an adequately-funded programme for training managers with a clear progression pathway. It must not be forgotten that the most successful managers are those from within the county, working on a voluntary basis.
I welcome the Ard Stiúrthóir’s proposals and we are fortunate to have his visionary approach consistently aiming for better outcomes. The new format would revitalise the championship, bring attractive games to the regions and allow an improving team to develop and progress. The plan is a good beginning but I feel an initiative to assist lower tier counties must follow. Bringing forward All-Ireland finals two weeks is acceptable in the context of creating a specific window for club championships. I also support implementation of the calendar year for fixtures even if All-Ireland club finals then go to January.
I would welcome the proposals as an important step in addressing the problems with club fixtures. It’s hard to come up with a perfect solution but I do believe we need to make changes in our inter-county structures in the interests of club players, and Páraic Duffy’s proposals will help in that regard. We need to be open to ideas such as playing the All-Ireland finals earlier and even playing the football final before the hurling final. We need to be able to dedicate specific times for club games and I believe the calendar season would enable us to give proper breaks to players.
I support Páraic Duffy’s plan, particularly as it condenses the playing schedule. However, I would see it as an important first step in terms of creating more time for the club game and hopefully helping in the ratio of training sessions to games. If we are serious about club players we need to bring certainty to their fixture programme and replays are one of the greatest problems in that area.
I would commend Páraic on his report and the time and effort he put into researching and compiling it. This was done primarily to improve the lot of the club player, which I fully endorse. I also would have no problem in bringing the All-Irelands forward by a week or two if that was to help out at the other end with concluding our club competitions. I believe the club competitions are drawn out too long to go as far as St Patrick’s Day. I believe we could play the All-Ireland semi-finals in December and start off our GAA season in the middle of January with the All-Ireland club finals.
It is a positive move, as we have come to expect from Páraic Duffy, but we must be cognisant that it is not the solution to all our fixture problems. The recognition that more quality matches is what the public want is now being realised. Replays are minimal but can cause huge problems for club players and fixtures makers but any decision to drop replays must consider the promotional and financial value of them to the provincial councils. The calendar year will be difficult to implement but a tightening of the current fixtures schedule is essential. I would totally be in favour of the All-Ireland finals coming forward by two weeks.
A priority for me is the provision of additional funding to the less resourced counties. Further, I commit to achieving a better balance in the distribution of resources by pursuing the process already begun in a staged progression of reallocation of Games Development funding. As Chairman of the National Games Development Committee, I have helped to initiate a review of personnel and structures. This review is ongoing and the resultant report will be of great assistance in determining both needs and capacities together with achieving balance and strategic investment going forward.
Most of our funding is going into coaching and games, which is where it should go and I want to see that continue in a manner that is well managed and shows good results. The reality is that some counties, particularly with large populations, have greater access to funding and commercial sponsorship although they would have greater competition from other sports. We have to strike a balance between funding growth and development in urban areas and ensuring survival and new ways of development in rural heartlands. I would do this by targeting funding for specific projects where clear benefits can be identified and defining clear criteria for agreeing priority areas for funding.
It is clear that there are differences in the income streams of counties and the matter needs addressing. The answer lies in how we spend our money. We cannot simply divide up the money, distribute it and then walk away. We need to look at what is needed in every county in terms of coaching development, facilities, games promotion, and any other relevant factors. We need to clearly identify any shortcomings or lacunas before we set about addressing them and we need to address them in a structured and sustainable way. We also need to ensure maximum transparency and accountability for any such expenditure.
Dublin has agreed to a cut in its €1 million annual grant to develop the Association in the county. One can’t but admire what’s been achieved in terms of promoting and progressing the Association in our capital city and it’s been a real success story. The GAA has achieved a necessary return on that investment. However, now it’s time to better resource other counties and bring them to a position where they can compete with Dublin. A more targeted approach to the division of funding commensurate with a county’s ability to raise its own funding and sponsorship is required.
The Association at national level has a large earning capacity. Regrettably, the earning capacity of individual counties is not equal by virtue of their size and their success. Distribution of national funds in relation to this anomaly must be addressed and reviewed. The first step in this process would be to have a collective forum with the Chairman, Secretaries and Treasurers of each county to ascertain, evaluate and indeed value each individual county’ needs and requirements.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
