MONEY MONSTERS
RIVALS FEAR DUBS WILL SOON BE UNTOUCHABLE
DURING his time as Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern liked to play-up to the image of being Dublin’s No 1 Fan, whether meeting and greeting the hordes on Jones’ road on Championship matchday or shuffling in just before throw-in at Parnell Park during the dark days of winter to take his seat in the rudimentary ‘VIP’ section in the main stand.
Well, given the dismantling of his political reputation since his very public fall from grace, perhaps the greatest legacy of the Ahern era is to Gaelic games in the capital.
In September 2005, it was announced that the government would be providing €3.59million in additional funding to the GAA through the Irish Sports Council.
A key part of that funding constituted a €1m grant to Dublin GAA, which would underpin a visionary strategic plan involving a small army of paid Games Development Officers, half of whose funding would come from the clubs themselves where they would operate on the ground.
Just over 10 years on, and Dublin are being held up in some quarters as the greatest threat to the GAA.
It’s reached a point where other counties now want a proportional cut of Irish Sports Council funding (or Sport Ireland as the rebranded umbrella agency name is known), Meath being just one.
Dublin’s dominance on and off the field is forcing a rethink by the GAA and president Aogán Ó Fearghail told Sportsmail that a way has to be found to bridge the financial divide between counties.
‘Money is a part of it – there is no doubt about it. We are definitely looking at redistributing GAA monies as best we can so that everyone gets as fair an opportunity at it as possible.
‘Certainly we’re reviewing things. We’ve told our association that, told everybody at Central Council on a couple of occasions that we are looking to reallocate as best we can.
‘Counties that are generating substantial monies themselves – we think that’s wonderful – but they don’t need additional money from the central pot heaped in on top of that.’
The recent appointment of former All-Ireland winning captain Bryan Cullen as Dublin’s first High Performance manager has only added to the perception that other counties are being left behind.
The screaming headline last February when the GAA’s annual financial report for 2014 was disclosed was that Dublin netted more for games development – €1.46m – than the other 31 counties combined.
But Sport Ireland spokesman Paul Farrell explains how the state-supported grant for games development in Dublin is less than half of that, having dropped from €1m in 2005 to what he says is €643,837 in 2015.
‘From our point of view, it’s all about trying to maximise participation,’ he adds.
Population and participation issues aside, to other counties, that figure is eye-watering. Especially at a time when Dublin’s senior footballers have won three All-Irelands in the last five years, secured an unprecedented hat-trick of National Leagues and turned the Leinster football championship into a one-team procession. And with the ‘Blue Wave’ document that targets consistent success at underage level in both codes, it looks like it will only continue to wash over the rest of Leinster, and beyond.
The GAA is under increasing pressure to level the playing field, particularly when AIG’s sponsorship has allowed Dublin to be mentioned in the same conversation as Manchester United and the All Blacks. John O’Mahony is well- placed to point up the political and footballing reality of 2016. The Mayo native and double All-Ireland winning manager with Galway last season helped in an advisory capacity with the Carlow footballers. He is also a Fine Gael TD and chairman of the Joint Oireachtas on Transport and Communications.
O’Mahonys’s view is that other counties need much more financial support from Croke Park, particularly in terms of games development grants.
‘I would spread it out. We cannot blame Dublin because they have the funds, the sponsorship and are doing the right thing. If that was the aim of it, it was very successful. But that model has left the rest of the country behind.
‘The GAA in fairness has dealt with lots of issues, bailed out clubs and counties that have been in financial difficulty and that’s to its eternal credit. But there is a boil here, that if it isn’t lanced, will widen the gap and become a major problem down the road. ‘It’s an issue I’m acutely aware of. I gave some advice to Carlow last year and saw at first hand the world they operate in which is way further back the line. You can mention then the Longfords and Leitrims and Wicklows. ‘If there was some agreement between the government and the governing body 10 years ago, Sport Ireland needs to ask the question, “Does that need to be ring-fenced anymore?” It needs to be expanded to issues that have arisen.’ And yet it’s just over 10 years ago that Dublin was held up as a model of under-achievement. Westmeath were Leinster champions in 2004, against a backdrop of very real concerns over participation rates in Gaelic games in the capital with an expanding population base.
Hence, the significant grant aid, gift-wrapped by Ahern, in 2005.
Dublin had the vision to invest those resources so wisely to the extent that they have become a model of best practice in terms of coaching, structures and sustainability. And all the time backed up by a massive volunteer element that tends to be overlooked.
ASUCCESSFUL Dublin football team is, in itself, a massive financial generator for the GAA, and for other counties who feel the effects of the financial trickle-down. Not to mention being a blue-chip brand advertiser for the association.
The GAA also knows that there is no upside to leaving vast swathes of Dublin to become GAA wasteland territory or of breaking a model that is almost a victim of its own success.
Dublin chairman Seán Shanley is also keen to point out: ‘All that money is going into coaching kids. It’s not going into the adult team.
‘All that money goes to the Games Promotion Officers and the important thing that has to be remembered is that the money has to be matched pound for pound’ [by the clubs who employ one].
He says the GAA would be foolhardy to reduce games development funding.
‘We’d actually be looking for more because there are new areas where we haven’t got into where we need to. Big, new council estates, around Clondalkin, Tyrrellstown, Ongar.’
Either way, the question of finance is going to frame the debate around Gaelic games for the season ahead. GAA president Ó Fearghail said the split of monies to counties still has to be finalised. ‘I’m not at the stage where I could say we increase or decrease anything.
What I’m saying is that we’ve alerted our association, through Central Council, that we’re looking actively at redistributing money.
‘Being honest about it, if you redistribute, yes it possibly involves maybe reducing in one area and spreading it to another. That’s the process we’re involved in.’
Counties that generate substantial monies don’t need extra from the pot