GAELIC GAMES:SO "THE door is not closed" and Martin Cullen is looking at ways to put the Government's intercounty players' grants scheme "in a more long-term, sustainable position". But the question remains: will the Minister for Sport be able to maintain the €3.5 million scheme as we know it?
Probably not, as Cullen suggested himself in Croke Park yesterday, but reports that the scheme is to abandoned altogether are untrue. Instead, Cullen will meet Gaelic Players Association (GPA) chief executive Dessie Farrell next week to formulate a resolution which the Minister believes could guarantee the scheme well beyond this year.
Cullen was, somewhat ironically, in Croke Park to announce €9.9 million in funding for games development projects within the three main sporting bodies – the GAA (€3.29 million), the FAI (€3.5 million), and the IRFU (€3.07 million). Inevitably, he soon found himself clarifying comments made in the Dáil the previous evening, which some interpreted as him pulling the plug on the players’ grants scheme.
“I was trying to be pretty straightforward with what I said,” he explained. “Some of it has been reported accurately. Some of it unfortunately hasn’t. I was trying to explain, and to John O’Mahony (TD) in particular, that the money made available last year was additional money, put into the Sports Council, specifically, and so the idea that they (the players) would take 10 per cent less, like everyone else, wasn’t a reality, because that particular fund just wasn’t there.
“But that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to have some kind of a programme as we go forward. The draw-down on this particular area doesn’t come into play until the end of the year. I don’t like the uncertainty, and I’m sure the players don’t like the uncertainty, but I have one or two ideas that I want to talk to the GPA about.
“I have met the GAA president and director general, and we’ve had a long discussion. I will be meeting Dessie Farrell. But he’s away at the moment, and I won’t be able to meet him until the middle of next week. I’ve given a lot of thought to this, taken a lot of soundings, and spoken to a lot of GAA players. And I’ve got some very interesting thoughts, about the medium to longer term.”
The GPA, in a statement to The Irish Times, welcomed the Minister's clarification and "were looking forward to meeting him in the near future to put the issue to bed".
Cullen didn’t expand on the “ideas” he had in mind, but it would appear the option of some sort of tax break may yet be revisited – even if a similar scheme for professional sports players is understood to be under threat.
“In fairness to the GPA, I don’t want to articulate in advance what may be said at the meeting,” added Cullen. “But there are a number and broad range of ways of looking to the future. I have some ideas that I want to put to them. Obviously some funding has to be involved in that process.
“I don’t want to portray this as an entirely fractious issue between myself and the players. It’s not. I am committed to trying to find a resolution, and – if I could say this much – a resolution that would perhaps put this on a firm footing. And it’s not just an immediate, quick solution. I think it needs to be more broad(ly) based than that. We have a couple of months to do that, in a calm way, and I think the outcome could be very positive.
“In some respects what some of the players said to me may present an opportunity as well. That’s the message the players have given me. Something sustainable over the next number of years, and I think that is possible.”
So while the €3.5 million scheme as introduced last year probably won’t survive, Cullen certainly wasn’t conceding defeat: “In the broadest sense, the sort of funding that was available in the previous year is clearly not available this year. I don’t want to pretend that it is. But I believe there are ways and means of looking at this that might put a scheme in place for the future, but I need to work with the GPA, and the GAA, on that. I have to say in my experience there is good will on all sides to deal with the matter.”
Earlier this year, Cullen suggested the GAA might step in to balance up some of the funding, but that was promptly ruled out by the GAA – who declined to comment further yesterday beyond saying that position hasn’t changed.
The €9.9 million announced yesterday, which the GAA, FAI and IRFU have been receiving in varying amounts since 2001, wasn’t an entirely separate matter in that it had been suggested some of that money could be diverted to the GAA players’ grants scheme.
“Quite frankly, that to me was not an option,” said Cullen, “because the actual impact of those programmes, on every county, every village in the country, is enormous. And you can take it from me that they will be maintained. That’s my determination.
“Perhaps the Sports Council and others thought that there might have been a more devastating budgetary outcome this year. I think it would be undermining a massive successful investment if we were to under-fund these programmes, because we have so many children now depending on them.”
