Capital gains as Dublin clubs enjoy €3.3m windfall

DUBLIN GAA clubs have enjoyed a significant €3.3million windfall in the latest Sports Capital Programme.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport distributed some €56m to over 1,700 sporting clubs and organisations for infrastructural development programmes after 2,320 applications were received.

Some 553 GAA clubs across the country got 42 per cent of the funding, €23,470,159m, with Dublin clubs taking €3,312,601 of that, just over 14 per cent.

Overall, some 30 Dublin clubs were in receipt of grants with 23 enjoying six-figure sums for development of all-weather facilities, skills walls, drainage, extensions of clubhouses and even the purchase of new tractor mowers.

Eleven of the 30 clubs, including county champions St Vincent’s and the county’s most recent All-Ireland club champions Ballyboden St Enda’s, received the maximum €150,000 grant.

Sixteen GAA clubs from the other 25 counties received six-figure sums from the funding programme with just five of those – four in Cork and Ballysaggart in Waterford – outside Leinster.

Another eye-catching feature was the quartet of Louth clubs which passed the €100,000 mark for developments. Mitchelstown in Cork got the biggest windfall outside of Dublin clubs with €120,000 on the way to them for new floodlights to their main pitch and training area.

Sports capital grants are distributed on a pro-rata basis commensurate with the population of each county. Most counties are oversubscribed so the quality of application will have helped Dublin GAA clubs.

Their €3.3m allocation is 45pc of the overall figure for soccer clubs in the 26 counties.

The FAI have welcomed their funding allocation for capital projects however, noting that three soccer clubs in the Dublin region – St Ita’s of Donabate, Leicester Celtic from Rathfarnham and Tallaght Town – all got the maximum available.