Q&A: All you need to know as Cork GAA find €176k in trawl of old accounts

Though at least one of the seven accounts remains active on a regular basis, it appears that Cork GAA has found two blocks of accounts they weren’t aware existed until last month. Picture: INPHO/Ken Sutton

The story in a nutshell?

Though at least one of the seven accounts remains active on a regular basis, it appears that Cork GAA has found two blocks of accounts they weren’t aware existed until last month. There’s €176,000 accumulated, fairly evenly divided between the two blocks.

What were the accounts used for?

One group of accounts - the more active one - was used for the financial ins-and-outs of the Bord na nÓg Helmet and Hurley Scheme, whereby GAA clubs were able to provide subsidised hurleys and helmets to the under-age players at a preferred rate. The equipment was provided by Mycro Helmets in Ballincollig.

The second account was set up around 2009 for the purpose of financing team holidays for Cork teams. A strong fund-raising drive for the 2010 All-Ireland football champions put the account in credit. There’s been little or no transactions on that account since. In total, there’s €89,000 and €87,000 respectively in the two blocks of accounts. 

On the team holiday fund account, the transactions primarily related to 2011 and funds received through sponsorship, corporate events or commercial activity (sale of photographs and car number plates) and payments for holidays taken by the players.

So how did so much money accumulate?

Clubs apply for subsidised hurleys and helmets every year. Money for the scheme is provided from central GAA funds but not all clubs were drawing it down, hence money gradually accumulated in that block of accounts.

So is this a windfall or an embarrassment for Cork GAA?

Bit of both. Though don’t expect to hear anyone at Pairc Ui Chaoimh shouting from the rooftops for a while about this unexpected cash bonanza (how they might choose to use it should be interesting). For starters, they will be keen to ensure corporate governance structures are enhanced and tightened in the future.

Apparently, that’s pretty much a fait accompli since this all came to light. There will be a degree of embarrassment that the Board’s executive, at least ones with access to that detail, were unaware that these active accounts existed.

Cork GAA have had their share of financial OG’s, right?

The Pairc Ui Chaoimh redevelopment nearly broke them. At a cost of over €96m, the project left Cork GAA in a hole to the tune of around €21m. Then after all that, they had to relay the pitch, which, by the way, now looks and plays superbly.

This episode is small beans compared to that millstone but if the new pitch was a metaphor for a corner turned, this governance problem is an unfortunate reminder how one slip can put the brakes on momentum.

But there’s no smoking gun here?

Doesn’t appear so. The Board’s independent Audit and Risk Committee has scrutinised all aspects of the situation since being informed by the Board chairman Marc Sheehan, treasurer Diarmuid Gowen and CEO Kevin O’Donovan of the issue. They finalised their interim report this week.

The A&R committee was set up in 2019 to “provide an independent appraisal structure within Cork County GAA, to measure and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of its risks, governance and internal control procedures and its financial reporting framework.” The committee members are chairman (and accountant) Ger Lyons, former head of UCC’s Business School, Ciaran Murphy, the CFO of Dairygold Michael Harte and accountant Catherine Coakley from Mourneabbey, who replaced Roisin O’Sullivan when she was appointed by new GAA president Larry McCarthy to the GAA’s National Audit Committee.

When were these accounts discovered and how?

The Helmet and Hurley Subsidy Scheme accounts were three Bank of Ireland Bank accounts. The primary account used to administer the scheme was a current account (€48,535), with surplus cash put on Deposit (€40,280) and transferred between the current account and deposit account as required.

Their existence appears to have surfaced in a general examination of accounts in the middle of April. Members of the executive were informed of developments and met for a ‘rancorous’ discussion on May 11. The Audit and Risk Committee were briefed towards the end of April and asked to prepare a full independent report.

Bank statements confirmed the existence of the accounts and the activity on one block of them.

What are the Board executive saying?

A statement issued to this newspaper Friday night set out the reasons why the accounts were outside the day-to-day Board account. They wanted to ring fence the money for the purposes outlined in the scheme and the holiday fund. But they admitted having specific sub-accounts within the day-to-day Board’s financial accounts – though still ring-fenced – would have achieved greater transparency.