State aid to GAA for All-Ireland championships likely to be less than €15m

The GAA has estimated it would cost almost €20m to stage the senior football and hurling competitions but that figure may have since been revised down

Waterford's Dessie Hutchinson in action against Dan Morrissey of Limerick during last December's All-Ireland SHC final at an empty Croke Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

The GAA are expected to receive a smaller Government grant to run their championships than they did in 2020.

Sources say that while substantial funding will be forthcoming, it is unlikely to be to the scale of last year’s €15m subvention, described by principal officer of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Brian O’Malley at the time as a “once-off intervention… for disbursement in 2020”.

Last September, the Government provided €14m to the GAA and €1m between the Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie Associations towards the running of their championships. The GAA estimated it would cost almost €20m to stage the senior football and hurling competitions. Speaking in February, GAA director of finance Ger Mulryan revealed that a six-month inter-county season would roughly cost the same.

That figure may have since been revised down as the updated calendar has shaved seven weeks off the original 27-week schedule.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said the final funding figures have yet to be agreed. “No decisions have yet been made in relation to Covid-19 funding support for the sport sector for this year. Sport Ireland is in ongoing communication with the National Governing Bodies of Sport and is assessing the financial needs of the sector.

“In addition, Minister (Jack) Chambers is engaging with NGBs both bilaterally and through the Covid-19 Sports Monitoring Group with regard to the supports required in the period ahead.”

Funding talks that last took place in March are expected to resume shortly but 10 days out from the start of the GAA inter-county season, there is anxiety among county treasurers as they face cutting their budgets further in the absence of government assistance. In the event of a subvention, their central funding will increase by 40% from €60,000 to €100,000.

As it stands, the grant is €70,000 less than 2020 — a drop of almost 54%. Unlike in 2020 when Croke Park paid all of players’ mileage expenses, counties will this year have to pay a fifth of them.

Last year’s funding announcement on September 25 came 22 days before the resumption of the inter-county season, which the GAA were prepared to cancel as they were not in a position to underwrite the €19.5m cost of staging the Championship.

However, no such threat has yet been made this year on the back of stringent cuts and commercial income earned off the back of last year’s Championship.

Also in February, GAA director general Tom Ryan said the size of the funding would be relative to the revenue the organisation itself can generate.

Confirming they had spoken to the department and Sport Ireland about the need for financial assistance, he said: “We are going to be in the unfortunate position — and we don’t like being in that position, we don’t like having to rely on the public purse — we flagged with them already that this year is going to be challenging.”