Darver levy still the hot financial topic

THE annual Darver ‘contribution’ was again the only real bug-bear for clubs as Louth treasurer Aidan Berrill revealed a surplus of €50,321 for 2017.

The controversial levy of €2,400 per club, per annum is used to pay off the debt on the Darver Centre of Excellence, which now stands at €618,000.

Club officials generally have no major issue with the levy itself, but the question of whether all clubs are pulling their weight equally has sparked plenty of debate at county board level over the years.

While an overall figure for funds raised from the levy is shown in the annual accounts, the actual contribution each club makes is kept under wraps.

Mr Berrill stressed that all clubs are making contributions and revealed that a proposed sanction to withhold All-Ireland ticket allocations may have helped to keep contributions flowing.

However, newly-elected Sean O’Mahony’s chairman Pat O’Brien suggested that the board could look into releasing a league table of how much each club has paid since the contribution was introduced seven years ago.

He said the levy is a huge burden on clubs which should be borne fairly and evenly by all clubs.

Mr Berrill was not in favour of a league table or revealing publicly how individual clubs are coping with the payments.

‘Every clubs has their own difficulties. Naomh Mairtin, to use my own club as example, might be functioning well at the moment, but that might not be the case in a couple of years,’ he said. He assured delegates that all clubs are contributing and said he wants all clubs to pay their fair share until the debt is paid off.

Elsewhere in the accounts it was revealed that club gate receipts were up by €10,000 in 2017, while the day-to-day running costs associated with Darver were down by €12,000 to €120,000.

However, county team expenses increased by almost €70,000 as Colin Kelly guided the Reds to promotion to Division 2. Expenditure on coaching and games increased from €12,197 in 2016 to €40,606.