GPA ready to accept reduced funding

GRANTS CUTBACKS:THE GAELIC Players Association (GPA) is prepared to cut their losses and agree to the significantly reduced Government grants for intercounty players. It means there'll be 70 per cent less money to go around – just over €1 million compared to €3.5 million in 2008 – although the GPA have conceded this is the only way of keeping the scheme alive into the future.

However, they have not yet agreed on exactly how this money will be distributed, and aren’t prepared to submit to the proposal that the Minister for Sport Martin Cullen presented in July, whereby around 600 intercounty players from up to 20 of the successful counties in the championship would get a share of the revised total of €1,050,000.

Under the 2008 scheme, every county player was entitled to claim a refund of eligible expenses, increasing with continuing involvement in the championship, ranging from individual payments of €1,400 to €2,500.

This benefited around 1,800 senior intercounty players in total.

GPA representatives discussed the matter with Cullen last week, as time is clearly running out if the grants are to be processed before the end of the year. It is understood they will come to a final agreement sometime next week, but there is now the realisation that the minister’s offer of €1 million is as good as it gets – particularly given the Government’s increasingly alarming financial state.

The reduced offer was first put on the table back in July, following speculation that the grants were about to be cut altogether. Speaking at the time, Cullen said the €1,050,000 was the most he could set aside for the scheme, and that it was “generous and more than comparable to the funding provided by the Government to athletes in all other sports”.

Cullen added “there is no more room for manoeuvre in terms of funding” and that “I’ve had other organisations on looking for it, if they (the GPA) don’t want it”.

Yet the GPA was quick to reject it, on two counts: firstly, that the 70 per cent reduction was way out of kilter with the reduction in other Government funding at the time; and secondly, that the proposal itself was elitist, and that one of the underlying principles of the scheme was that it should benefit every intercounty player.

But with the realisation that there is no additional Government money to come, and the €1 million is effectively a take-it or leave-it offer, the GPA have been forced to compromise.

They had been looking at potential ways of supplementing the Government figure in order to maintain a similar scheme to last year, but with that resolution looking unlikely, it now appears the €1 million will be have to spread thinly around, resulting in fairly negligible amounts of grant aid to each player.

This would at least keep the scheme alive in principle in the hope that the amounts will increase if or when the Government’s financial position improves.

Cullen also stated at the time of his proposal in July that if the GPA came back and said they’d prefer it was broken down in another way, then he’d “be happy to do that” and also that the amount would continue going forward, even withstanding all the economic difficulties. He also denied the suggestion the proposal was elitist, explaining that he “drilled the scheme down to make sure the lower counties went in, and brought the Christy Ring Cup in, and the four losing Round Four qualifiers in football.”

Once the GPA agree definite terms for the distribution of the €1 million, the GAA then step into the process. Their role is purely administrative, as agreed by Congress back in April of 2008, with each county player entitled to claim a refund of eligible expenses in the same way they claim expenses from their counties.

Last year, this was based on a sliding scale, increasing with continuing involvement in the championship, ranging from individual payments of €1,400 to €2,500. Further funding was available to county squads, an annual team performance scheme and annual support scheme, was based on a panel of 30 players, ranging from €42,000 to €75,000.

The GAA’s operations manager, Feargal McGill, who oversees player welfare issues, explained yesterday they were awaiting final confirmation from the GPA and the Minister’s department on how the grants would be distributed.

“Obviously we are a little behind time compared to last year,” he said. “At this stage last year a lot of the paperwork was in fact done, and the money itself was distributed by early December.

“Our role hasn’t changed in that we’re only responsible for processing the grants, but time is moving on. It would want to be agreed quite shortly, but in terms of processing them before the end of the year, it is still doable.”

The GAA will this morning join the FAI, IRFU and all other sporting associations in making a joint submission to the Government outlining the importance of sustaining adequate funding for Irish sport into the future.

The chief executives of the three associations, along with those from the Federation of Irish Sports, the OCI, the Paralympic Council of Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland, will stage a joint press conference in Dublin as part of their lobbying process.