Dublin senior manager Jim Gavin has defended his county for receiving €1.34 million in games development according to figures released in the GAA Financial report.
This figure roughly exceeds the collective amount received by the 31 other competing counties. The revelation sparked controversy in GAA circles with several arguing that this allocation of funding only serves to extend the gap between the All-Ireland champions and the rest of the competition.
But Gavin insists that the above figure is a legitimate value of what Dublin GAA is entitled to. Speaking after his side's League win over Mayo, he said:
''The funding has gone into the clubs. The intelligent thing that Dublin GAA did is invest in people. And that’s what they are doing. There is very little capital investment going on in Dublin clubs at the moment. The county board, with that funding, matches it on parity – there’s a 50:50 split. The bedrock of the association is volunteerism.''
Why does Dublin get nearly half of all #GAA development funding? @offtheball discuss: https://t.co/yB3deJ3giH pic.twitter.com/Nqyf87rKg4
— Newstalk (@NewstalkFM) February 4, 2016
Gavin went on to explain how Dublin GAA rely on the work of a Games Development officer for promoting GAA among the youth in the capital and pointed out that this figure is not present in other counties.
''I was out with my young fella, the under-eights and the games promotion officer was there. He was co-ordinating five coaches with the 20 kids that were there. Myself and the other guys were all volunteering our time – you need someone to co-ordinate it.''
''Talking about Longford, I was up with a good friend of mine Ciaran Carey – a great Mayo stalwart living now in Longford – I was up there presenting medals a few months back. The conversation with a cup of tea afterwards was about Games Promotion Officers: they don’t have any.''
Meath gets just under €46k in games development funding. Kildare c.€43k. Dublin, with massive sponsorship deals, gets €1.46m. #gaa
— Laura O'Brien (@lrbobrien) February 4, 2016
''I said that the club chairman needs to put a business plan together, get on to county board officials, make the case to Croke Park and demand . . . there’s plenty of funding coming in to Croke Park – we saw the big attendances that are there. They need to put their vision to Croke Park, get a games promotion officer into Longford, into the clubs, and promote the game.''
