GAA should be more ‘robust’ in its dealings with government, says Neary
Connacht GAA President Vincent Neary suggests that his association has been shy in promoting its real value to the Irish economy.
In the week of a new Taoiseach was elected, the president of Connacht GAA has suggested the association needs to negotiate harder with government in order to be recompensed better for what it provides to society at large.
Vincent Neary, in his annual address, observed that the GAA is continually expanding and that with this growth (which includes the appointment of full-time staff) comes additional costs which requires more income to sustain. The Mayo native highlighted last year’s report, ‘The Economic and Social Value of Gaelic Games on the Island of Ireland’, which, he said, provided all the hard facts – that government receives €192.6 million in direct and indirect taxation from Gaelic Games and an additional €1.056 billion for the replacement cost of volunteering.
“Maybe with these sorts of figures we, as an organisation, should be more robust when it comes to negotiations with government for funding as I feel that traditionally we have been shy in promoting our real value to the economy and requesting matching funding to reflect that.
“If full-time staff are under pressure, then the volunteer is equally feeling the strain. Volunteer recruitment is getting more difficult,” said Neary who referred to a recent club survey that showed 19 clubs had not filled the position of chairperson three months after their AGM, and more than that had failed to fill the role of secretary and treasurer.
“This has to be a concern and obviously lesser roles in clubs show bigger vacancies and for longer periods,” said the president.
“Some of the reasons are that there is an increase in regulatory requirements, changing demographics, reduced disposable time and the negativity and abuse of volunteers. To their credit, clubs and counties still find ways around recruitment challenges,” said Neary who also expressed disappointment that the GAA had suspended the FBD League and all inter-county preseason competitions this year.
“I am yet to be convinced by some of the arguments for their removal, like player burn out because of the season extension and costs to counties by an earlier start to the season.
“It will be interesting to see if counties make a significant saving because of no preseason competition, and to my knowledge players playing in the early competitions had little impact on burnout. The competitions here in Connacht were a major source of income and if the council are to continue to honour all their commitments, then replacement funding will have to come from somewhere,” warned Neary.
