O'Neill accepts cuts as 'reality in the country'

THE IRISH Sports Council’s annual funding for GAA programmes was announced yesterday as €2,966,640. The reduction of €190,000 from the 2010 figure is not seen as a major surprise by the association and will be primarily funnelled into their coaching personnel.

The GAA itself will augment this investment with their own contribution of €10.13 million.

“We were told it was coming,” said Liam O’Neill, chairman of the national coaching and development committee, and incoming president of the association.

“We’ll adjust to it – that’s the reality in the country at the moment. If everybody is treated fairly we certainly won’t be the ones to create a fuss.”

The governing bodies of the other major field sports in Ireland, the FAI and IRFU, have also seen their funding cut by €260,000 and €186,000 respectively.

“All we can guarantee the Sports Council and the government is that every cent given to us is spent well,” O’Neill continued.

The €2.97 million is to support the GAA grassroots to national programme, while also promoting of participation in Gaelic Games.

“A great deal of this investment is on personnel. We augment it with a good deal of our own money as well. When you take in the entire national spend – the provincial councils, county level and the clubs – it is well over €20 million.”

Other figures released yesterday noted the GAA have over 20,000 teams operating out of 2,300 clubs and more than 464,000 registered members.

The Sports Council funding assists the 323 games development personnel employed by the association.

A large amount of the investment goes into the densely populated Dublin GAA and hurling development across the country.

“There is no more visible evidence of the money invested in Dublin than the success this year of all their hurling teams at senior, minor and under-21,” O’Neill said.

“Back in 2002, the strategic review we did was given as an aspiration that if the six counties were targeted and if money was invested then one of them would reach an All-Ireland semi-final within 10 years. People said that was pie in the sky, but Dublin achieved that a year earlier than planned.”

The other five counties O’Neill referenced for hurling development are Antrim, Laois, Carlow, Westmeath and Kerry. “We’ll be targeting those, the next group, in the hurling plan.”

Continuing on the topic of future investment, O’Neill added: “The idea of this national hurling and camogie development centre in Waterford, in partnership with Waterford IT, will be somewhere we can develop best practice across coaching to bring counties up to speed with the top counties. We are moving on to phase two now of that plan.

“We’ll hope that within 10 years we’ll have pulled at least one of those teams up to challenge for an All-Ireland semi-final.”

The Sports Council also noted yesterday that the GAA “will refine structures to reflect an integrated approach, particularly around developments for children. women’s Gaelic football, camogie and rounders will be invited to sit on the National Operations Group”.