Disappointment among counties at level of Government funding, says Martin

Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport, Patrick O'Donovan. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

A leading GAA official has reported disappointment among counties at the level of Government funding announced for the organisation in last week's Budget.

National games development committee chairman Micheál Martin has been liaising with counties on a review of the sector and has been contacted by several of them since the figures were revealed last Tuesday.

In terms of games development, there was an additional €750,000 afforded to the growth of hurling in non-traditional areas. 

Core funding to the GAA improved by €250,000, while inter-county players’ grants rose by €1.6 million.

As Martin promoted a new GAA coach recognition awards scheme, Martin claimed there is an inaccurate perception that the GAA is self-sufficient because it currently provides over €14m to games development per annum.

“I think it would be fair to say that there will be a level of disappointment with the support of grassroots funding,” he said. “And while you'd have to acknowledge that in an overall sense there was an allocation towards inter-county players in the form of the GPA, it was significantly higher than our game development funding.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the importance of inter-county players is important, I think the annual Government support for that (grants scheme) is €7.2m, somewhere in that region. The Government's support for grassroots GAA is back up to now €3.4m, having been reduced. We're now back up to what we would have been pre-2019.

“The level of GAA funding for coaching and games is in excess of €14m. And while we are reviewing things at the moment, we're not reviewing things on the basis that that money would be reduced. But there's very little scope to increase it.” 

Former Wexford chairman Martin suggests but for the work of GAA stadium director Peter McKenna in scheduling non-GAA events in Croke Park and this year’s increased football attendances, the GAA would not be able to commit so much to games development.

“I think there is an expectation among counties and provinces that a greater level of government support for games development will be required. So, it’s probably now there will be an onus on us to reflect and re-engage with Government.

“And certainly the level of funding now to FAI academies (€3m) and the €6m annual funding that the FAI receive, the comparison is not positive from our perspective. I think the level of concern in counties is that the amount of funding seems to be mirrored at local government level as well, where grassroots programmes for certain other codes seem to receive a stronger level of financial support, as do some of the infrastructure projects in some counties.

“In the context of Wexford, there has been the development of a fully-funded floodlit, all-weather soccer facility developed by the local council. That seems to be something that is mirrored in other counties. So, there certainly is cause for concern and that the GAA may be seen as self-sufficient.” 

As part of the games development review, Martin revealed his group are considering extending to coaches and managers the same eligibility rules that currently apply to players.

Citing Clare club’s Wolfe Tones’s motion from 2018 which proposed only registered club members be able to coach or manage the club but was rejected at Congress that year, he said: “We’re looking at the concept that coach eligibility may, either in the short term or longer term, be linked to the same type of restrictions as player eligibility.

“In other words, there will be some level of restriction on whether you could coach clubs that are not your own. And that's something the amateur status committee has explored. Clare brought a motion in 2018.

“You could phase it in. Clubs with large membership would be the first clubs to be required to adopt such a policy. Many of them are either in Dublin or greater Dublin area and they've also benefitted to the largest degree from Central Council game development funding over the last 20 years. It's something for consideration and discussion.” 

Nominations for the new GAA coach recognition awards initiative opened on Monday. Among the awards include overall coach of the year, nursery coach of the year and primary and secondary school teachers of the year.

“It’s a way of acknowledging and rewarding those who are given most in the coaching sphere, recognising grassroots coaches,” Martin explained. “Coach education is changing and it's changing rapidly, not just in GAA. Covid probably changed how people engage with learning, particularly coaches.

"It's an obvious statement to make that people are busier now than they ever were before, and people value their off time. The concept of weekend courses or evening courses and so on is probably one that's dying. So, there's kind of a hybrid model with online learning, and that's something that the GAA will be rolling out.”