Football

GAA defends urban investment as it offers Leinster counties 50-50 coaching model

THE GAA has defended its investment in urban areas and admits it has no immediate plans to roll similar initiatives out in rural parts of the country.

While Dublin’s receipt of €1.3m in Games Development grant money in 2018 was again one of the standout figures at yesterday’s release of the GAA’s annual accounts, particularly given that it had marginally increased since last year, it was noticeable that many counties in the eastern belt saw significant jumps in the same category.

With every county in Leinster having seen an increase in population in recent years, in contrast to the rural depopulation in much of the rest of Ireland, Kildare and Meath both received over €100,000 more than in 2017, bringing them nearest to their neighbours in terms of their overall figure.

The overall figure for Meath was €367,400 (up by €100,354), while Kildare’s figure of €341,346 showed an increase of €114,918.

Wicklow (€274,000) and Louth (€258,746) received the next highest grants, while Wexford (€234,800) and Laois (€201,110) – all of whom fall under the new East Leinster Coaching Project - are also is the top nine in terms of money received.

Cork (€249,000) and Derry (€210,800), both counties with major urban population centres in the two cities, are the others that received more than €200,000 last year.

Of the four provincial bodies (excluding Britain), Leinster Council also received both the highest figure and the biggest increase from 2018. They received €534,293, just shy of €100,000 more than last year.

Games Development grant money is predominantly used to pay wages for full and part-time coaches, of which the GAA now employs a total of 345 across the country.

The organisation’s new finance director Ger Mulryan, who took over when his predecessor Tom Ryan moved into the director general’s chair, revealed that the 50-50 coaching model employed so successfully in Dublin would now become available to counties involved in the East Leinster Coaching Project.

“The coaching fund only supports 50 percent of every coach in a club in Dublin,” said Mulryan.

“And rather than try and dismantle something that’s working, really, really well, I think the investment of an extra €600,000 last year in the East Leinster project has delivered 35 extra coaches along a similar Dublin model across give new counties.


“So we are in Louth, Meath, Wicklow, Wexford and Kildare. So, that model is working, we are evolving it, so that it where we will try to do it.

“We won’t try to reduce something that is actually really, really positive, we will try to enhance for the rest of the country.”

Asked if the 50-50 model, which sees clubs in Dublin pay 50 per cent of the wage of their Games Development Officer(s) (GDOs), Mulryan said: “Ordinarily up to now, with all other coaches they were totally funded 100 per cent by the organisation.

“The Dublin model now has been replicated at a scale in the five counties that I referenced so that probably is the way to go forward.”


On whether it would be available to counties outside the eastern corridor, he added: “As in it’s not currently rolled out to other counties.

“The east Leinster project is a three year project. Again, like the championship we’ll watch the progress and see hopefully the extra participation levels grow in these particular clubs and areas, and then review it on the back of that.”

Mulryan also defended the need to finance Dublin so heavily, whose commercial partners include main sponsors AIG as well as Subaru and Aer Lingus, saying that the capital’s county board actually runs “at a small deficit”.

“Without the support it would be very, very challenged. The support that is provided has serious conditions attached to it. It’s not a case that it can ultimately be used as its own

“There’s an employment issue here too in that ultimately we are employers of over 70 coaches, 60-70 coaches in the Dublin area.

“If we were to stop that funding then in theory they could lose their jobs and ultimately we wouldn’t get the benefit we currently get out of the whole process.”