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You are > Home > West fares poorly from Croke Park money
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
West fares poorly from Croke Park money
In August 2007 the GAA decided that €26 milliom in rental income from the use of Croke Park by the IRFU and the FAI would be allocated to regional centres of excellence.
The list of approved grounds was published recently. It shows Connacht at the bottom of the pile with just one approved ground in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. This ground is being developed by the Connacht Council for use by clubs and counties throughout the province.
Munster and Leinster are tied at the top with five approved grounds each while Ulster is in second place on four. Proportionate to the number of counties in the province, the west has fared poorly.
However, it is probably more the fault of the counties than of the National Infrastructural Committee. They can only deal with the number and quality of applications.
Munster fared best with five of their six counties grant aided Tulla in County Clare, the Show Grounds in Cork, Waterford City, Dr. Morris Park in Thurles, County Tipperary, and Rathkeale in County Limerick. Strangely the Kingdom is the only Munster county to miss out.
In Leinster the grants go to St. Loman’s in Mullingar, Leixlip in Kildare, Rathcoole in Wicklow, Clontarf in Dublin and Heywood in Laois. Ulster has four Antrim town, Breffni Park in Cavan, Owenbeg and St. Columb’s Park, both in Derry. That makes Derry the only county to benefit from two approvals.
Certainly the result in Connacht is very disappointing, particularly when compared with Munster that has six counties, one more than the west, yet five times as many approved grounds.
Be that as it may, this level of infrastructural development arising from rental income that has and will accrue from IRFU and FAI games confirms that the aspirations of those who drove the Rule 42 campaign, none more so than Roscommon, were well justified.
Additional to the €26 million allocation for development of regional centres, a further €8 million is being allocated to counties, €250,000 each, for infrastructural development in their clubs.
Some are opting for one central ground while others, Roscommon included, have invited applications from the clubs.
That brings the total allocation to the development of facilities at grassroots level to €34 million. A further €5 million approximately will be allocated to other groups such as overseas and colleges.
Former GAA President Sean Kelly has left an indelibly positive footprint on the Association through his leadership during that difficult, and at times quite dirty, campaign. Others have done quite the opposite.
Last Saturday’s Special GAA Congress made yet another attempt to get the provincial and All-Ireland championships structures and disciplinary rules right. Whether it works or not remains to be seen as both changes are temporary and will be reviewed at future Congresses.
In the case of discipline the new rules will be tried out during the provincial and national leagues and will be reviewed at next April’s congress. The new hurling structure has been give a three year trial period. In the latter case I’m still not optimistic. There is considerable opposition in both Galway and Leinster. The best suggestion during the debate came from Ger Doyle of Wexford.
In opposing the motion he said that the Association should retain the provincial championships and then have an open draw format for the All-Ireland series. He’s not the first and he won’t be the last to suggest an open draw.
Indeed the Hurling Development Committee considered it but decided that “the Association is not yet ready”. Given that it has spent the last 12 years tinkering with the structure, to little effect, this is certainly last chance saloon.
If Saturday’s proposals don’t work then it’s time to get radical forget about vested and local interests and make the right decision for the overall good of the greatest game in the world.
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