Mayo GAA responds to claims of financial mismanagement

Mayo GAA County Board has made its first public response to months of allegations concerning its financial affairs.

Claims of financial mismanagement over the course of many years by Mayo GAA have been circulated repeatedly and widely by several individuals through a series of online posts, but in a rebuttal on Wednesday night, Mayo GAA treasurer Valerie Murphy said the allegations were being made with “no evidence provided.” 

Speaking at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Board, Ms Murphy dealt specifically with two accusations, firstly that Mayo GAA never benefited from a write-down of its debt which Croke Park negotiated with lender Ulster Bank, and secondly that Croke Park held a surplus of Mayo GAA’s money in an ‘unexplained account’.

She did so at the request of Ballycroy delegate Michael Gallagher who said that while Mayo County Board’s agenda should never be set by anyone on the outside, that their silence was only creating a “vacuum” for individuals that he had “absolutely no time for”.

“I would encourage Mayo County Board to nip this in the bud and say exactly what’s happening. And for the GAA to say, too. Because when you leave a vacuum for these people, they thrive in it. And I think we’re strong enough and powerful enough as Mayo GAA to say it as it is and knock these people back,” said Gallagher.

“Our members are seeing all this and they’re asking, ‘Is Ballycroy paying too much? Did the GAA not pass a write-down on to Mayo? Everywhere we go [it’s been asked]’. So I would humbly ask, did we ask the GAA if there was a write-down? Did we ask the GAA if we are paying too much? Did we do this and are we paying too much?” 

Valerie Murphy, who has been Mayo GAA treasurer since 2019, confirmed that a write-down was passed on from Croke Park to Mayo GAA. However, she said the arrangement made ten years ago was subject to a non-disclosure agreement with the bank, so there were restrictions on what could be said.

The debt, which stood at just over €10million, was due largely to the redevelopment of MacHale Park during the previous decade.

“The Central Council assumed the internal debt of Mayo GAA in January 2015,” began Ms Murphy. “The intervention was at the request of the county committee and a resolution was agreed locally. The arrangements included a provision for diminutive indebtedness, so there was a write-down and it was passed on. The borrowings are reflective of that in the loan agreement.” 

 When pressed by Westport delegate Willie McDonagh on whether the write-down was passed on to Mayo GAA “in full”, Ms Murphy said: “We don’t have oversight of that. And it was ten years ago. I did speak to Croke Park and they advised me that it was passed on. I know how much the write-down was.” 

The treasurer received support from Hollymount-Carramore delegate Mike Connelly, who became Mayo GAA chairman just one month prior to Croke Park’s intervention. He said much of the county board’s financial woes had stemmed from the economic downturn around 2008 and 2009 and a “handful of major, major problems” at the redeveloped MacHale Park that still had to be sorted and paid for.

“Croke Park, to be fair to them, came on board and put a whole plan in place,” said Connelly.

“We were paying something like €64,000 a month. It was not a great situation to be in at the time, from the point of view of repayments, and from the point of view of finishing this place.” 

As one example, Mike Connelly said “You wouldn’t heat a bathroom,” with the heating system that had been installed in the offices.

“A lot of stuff still had to be paid for. Croke Park came in and supported that,” he added.

Valerie Murphy said Mayo GAA’s loan repayments were now €25,000 a month, a result of the loan’s extension to 30 years, which she defended.

“It’s about the ability to repay your loan and there was a stage there where we weren’t.” She also dismissed the notion that Mayo GAA does not have direct access to money that it removed from its bank in 2023 and ‘invested’ with Croke Park instead.

“We have €2.135million on deposit. To date we have earned €59,000 in interest on that money. We can take that money out because it is our own money, it is for our big projects,” said Ms Murphy, identifying the proposed Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence in Bohola and the installation of a 4G pitch in Lower Mulvey Park as two potential examples.

“It is our money and it is not held. We were getting no interest in the bank, it was sitting in current accounts and not one euro being earned. So to date €59,000 is what we have earned on that. If I had left that in current accounts we wouldn’t have it.

“If you are a club and have money in the bank, invest it in Croke Park. You get a return,” urged Ms Murphy, who said six Mayo clubs have already done so at a return of 1.9%.