Funding model is still the elephant in room

THE biggest takeaway from John Horan’s historic appearance in the Senate – for those of you unfortunate enough to endure the spectacle on Oireachtas TV – was the pressing need for us to have a second people’s vote of our own.

Yes, we did vote to keep it but only God knows why.

Tuesday’s proceedings shone a far more critical light on an expensive political nursing home than it did on the country’s biggest sporting organisation, although the Sinn Féin senator Rose Conway-Walsh provided evidence that some intelligent life flickers within.

Mind you, her query as to what plans Horan had to deliver on a more balanced funding model than the one which she cited between 2010 and 2014 (which saw Dublin receive €274.40 per registered player, Mayo receive €22 and Kerry €19), yielded little in terms of an illuminating response.

That was followed up 24 hours later by the publication of Tom Ryan’s inaugural director general’s report, where, again, no mention was made of a rebalance of central funding.

Yet, this was an issue that has been flagged in the past by Ryan’s predecessor Páiric Duffy, who in the aftermath of publishing his annual report in 2016, admitted: ‘We need to look at fairness and equity and over a period of time, we will do that.’

He was not the only one to give that commitment in 2016. ‘It’s going to be a job of work that will probably take up to three years,’ said the then chief financial officer Tom Ryan.

Now that the three years have passed, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that if Ryan did not see fit to reference the funding elephant in the room this week as his 2016 deadline elapsed, then little has been achieved.

A dozy Senate might not hold the GAA to account on that promise, but those who believe in a level playing field most certainly will.