Dave Hannigan's article today.

[harry crumb]

I think people are being too harsh on Dave Hannigan. I don't always agree with him, but the point he makes about Shamrock Rovers and Tallaght are points that need to be made. They spent govenment grants on player's wages. Its a disgrace.

[patsh]

Patsh is the one full of #### and I'd love to hear more of his opinions of how rugby toffs have ruined his life, I really would :rolleyes:

Awww, the little rugger boy is still calling me names.....how sweet.

[patsh]

The GAA got €40m (or at least promised it) last year to complete the stadium. Beries tried to do deal for €60m but he didn't have cabinet approval so the PDs stopped it. The GAA must have got something at the start. €19m is not correct no matter what way you calculate it.

:rolleyes:
Wrong Pete.
This is a letter taken for the Irish Times of a few weeks ago. The figures mentioned have been independently verified.
************************************************** **************
I write in response to a letter from David Luke (March 4th) in which he spuriously remarks that taxpayers have contributed almost half the cost of the building of Croke Park.

For the record, the GAA has developed a network of facilities countrywide at a cost estimated at around €2.6 billion with the aim of providing a social, cultural and sporting outlet for communities in rural parishes, villages, towns and cities. It has made an inestimable contribution to the social, mental and physical health and well being of the nation.

The GAA has redeveloped Croke Park at a cost of close to €260 million. With the exception of the €19 million that the Government invested in Croke Park to prepare it to host the opening and closing ceremonies for the Special Olympics, the balance of any monies received is lottery funding. The lottery was established to provide additional funding to support the arts, culture, and national heritage; the Irish language; youth, sport, recreation and amenities; and health and welfare projects. Lottery funding cannot be described as Exchequer or taxpayers' money. The fact of the matter is that the GAA has given far more to the Exchequer than it has received, by way of taxes that have accrued as a result of its investment in Croke Park and other grounds throughout the country, not to mention the employment and revenue generated by its activities.

Indeed, the association has not begrudged other sporting organisations which have received a commitment to comparatively massive Government funding with little relative investment of their own.
- Yours, etc.,

DANNY LYNCH, PRO, GAA, Croke Park, Dublin 1.

© The Irish Times
***********************************

Some people simply do not want to believe this and prefer to believe that the GAA are getting massive sums of money. The FACT is that they are not, and no amount repeating the lie is going to change that fact.

There are things that people can criticise the GAA for, and they do, LONG and LOUDLY.
However, ALL associations can be criticised and while the FAI gets it's fair share, the IRFU, through their toadies in the media, get away with being a monument to class, exclusion and snobbery, and thier assets and landbanks rarely recieve any investigation. If you do criticise them, you get the usual, wounded little whelp response. Why are their finances NEVER questioned? Why does NOBODY ever complain about the money they get?

The point about the GAA is that it is a truly democratic organisation where EVERYBODY has their say, so we hear the minority who were against the opening of Croke Park just as much as we hear the majority who were for it. The problem with democracy of course, is that it's the worst system there is, but nobody has come up with a better system yet.

[adamd164]

A couple of facts here.
"but millions upon millions of tax-payers money was handed over, no questions asked, to the organisation."
COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNTRUE.
In total, €19 million of "taxpayers money" has been "handed over" to the GAA.
Could you please differenciate between "millions-upon-millions" and "19 million"??? :confused:


The most important fact of all is that THE GAA ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE FAI.
When and where did I say they were :confused: ???


AS for few other organisations would have such a moronic rule in the first place, what about the IRFU?
They might not have it actually written down somewhere, but this is the most elitist, class-based, exclusionary organisation in the world possibly.
If it isn't written down, then it's not a rule of theirs. btw, I think you're totally blowing that 'class-based' sh*t out of proportion. Many "lower-class" guys play the game here in Cork.


It makes me PHYSICALLY SICK to think that these privileged, middle class, want for nothing f*cking gurriers will be allowed on to the hallowed turf of Croke Park, when for years their spiritual masters and wannabee west Brit ancestors killed and maimed the ordinary decent people of this country.
"Hallowed turf" .... VOMIT!

And by the way, fu*k off with your "ancestors killed and maimed the ordinary decent people of this country" bullsh*t. That has absolutely nothing to do with the argument about tax funding and imo makes you sound petty.

[pete]

Lottery funding is basically the same as government funding as the government decide who gets what, Little difference between tax payers cash & cash rasied from state lottery.

Where did the recent 40m to complete Croke Park come from?

Why don't the GAA admit how much lottery funding they have received?

I do not begrudge the GAA its cash - they receive about 3m a year in standard funding similar to the IRFU & FAI. The real enemy is the 50-60m that horse racing gets every year in standard funding, Capital funding is a different section.No problem with the GAA getting cash as long as the FAI get similar amounts.

[patsh]

makes you sound petty.
Certainly something you know a lot about.....

[Soko]

Patsh, you're a sad little boy. Its a pity you never made it onto a sporting field or you might have grown up a little and figured out some things for yourself, instead of buying into every stereotype in the book and believing other peoples opinions.

[patsh]

Lottery funding is basically the same as government funding as the government decide who gets what, Little difference between tax payers cash & cash rasied from state lottery.

Where did the recent 40m to complete Croke Park come from?

Why don't the GAA admit how much lottery funding they have received?

I do not begrudge the GAA its cash - they receive about 3m a year in standard funding similar to the IRFU & FAI. The real enemy is the 50-60m that horse racing gets every year in standard funding, Capital funding is a different section.No problem with the GAA getting cash as long as the FAI get similar amounts.
Aww Pete, come on!
All cash from the Lottery is money spent voluntarily by people, knowing that the money they put in is to be spent on sports, arts, culture etc.
There is a vast difference between recieving that money and being given the money that is compulsorily raised to pay for roads, health services, social welfare amongst other things.

The GAA in that letter state quite clearly that they get a lot of lottery money, they are not hiding the fact....:confused:

As far as I know, the grants for Sport from the central Lottery fund are disbursed through the Arts, Sport and Tourism department. I've been trying to find some summary of the allocations given to different sports, but it's not too easy to find on the Dept. website.

I presume Horse Racing will come out top of the list, but I reckon Golf clubs come out very well too, as they were one of the first groups to grasp the benebfits of the scheme. In the first few years, at least, golf was the highest beneficiary.

As for the FAI getting the same cash as the GAA, if you look at the type of facilities GAA clubs put in place compared to football clubs, (playing fields, clubhouse, bar, social centre for GAA clubs, dressing rooms, pitch for football clubs) the grants will be much higher, I suspect, as the GAA facilities are geared to be for more than simply sport and are cross-community centres.
Of course, the fact that O'Donoghue, and McDaid in particular would be GAA people and would not care too much for way the FAI "carried on" it's business, doesn't help either. In this regard, the FAI's inability to conduct it's business properly has seriously weakened it's ability to demand the amounts of money it should be getting. If the FAI pushed the eL more and emphasised the the fact that Irish boys can stay at home and make a decent living from the game domestically, and that there is an indigenous football industry, it might alter the perception that soccer only really happens cross-channel.

[Macy]

The Government still decides where the Lottery money goes - it decided that eircom Park wouldn't be getting any, for example. So the Government decide to give the GAA millions that could be spent elsewhere.

Of course the GAA has the benefit of it's only professionals being the paid administrators, rather than rugby and football who don't expect the players to put in all the effort for fook all return. Basically every match they only have to cover ground costs, rather than player costs. Every eL ground would match the GAA county grounds if that were the case - however, even those grounds have bugger all stands that would pass the licence.

Nice to see a GAA head finally admit that much of the developments in the GAA are money making as well - all centred around club houses etc that do a very nice trade over the bar.

Having said that, I don't have a major problem with the GAA over funding, bar for Croke Park against the total lack of funding for the FAI's proposal (I'm no fan of the FAI administrators, but how the Governments failure to support eP is their fault I don't know!). Again my real problem is the Racing Industry who make millions as it is...

[razor]

I suspect, as the GAA facilities are geared to be for more than simply sport and are cross-community centres.That is of course unless you are a community socccer team.

[adamd164]

razor there's no point in arguing with him, he won't listen :rolleyes:

[patsh]

That is of course unless you are a community socccer team.
I know what you mean,razor, but what I mean are the facilities themselves.
Most soccer clubs develop a ground and dressing room set-up only, while GAA clubs tend to go in for much larger scale developments, and normally incorporate a bar and a function room which is used for community events. (bingo, youth clubs and stuff like that.)
Soccer clubs, unfortunately, tend to be associated with a particular pub, while GAA clubs tend to represent an area/parish/community.

And Macy, your point about eircom Park is correct, but that can be traced back to ONE politician really, B. Ahern. For a supposed soccer fan, that guy has done his level best to ruin things for soccer in this country. If the FAI were the type of organisation who commanded respect and had some clout, he wouldn't have been able to get away with that quite so easily.
The Government do decide on the lottery funds, and this is where the FAI are so sadly lacking. Given the soccer is the most widely played game in the country, you would think that they should get the most money, but because there is no political clout whatsover from within the game, soccer just doesn't get it's fair share. Compare the type of lobbying, if any, that soccer attracts, while the GAA and Rugby shower have very strong advocates within the Dáil.

This thread was started as "criticism" of a journalist and then had yet another whinge and moan at the GAA. This seems to be common practice for a lot of posters on this board, who whinge and moan about the GAA constantly without knowing any FACTS, just mistruths and urban myths. I pointed out that you could level much of the same criticism at the rugby crowd, probably ten times over, in fact, and the response from that corner was childish abuse and not a solitary post actually debating the issue.

I reckon EVERY cent given to the GAA is more than defensible, I think you could argue that even if the FAI got ten times the amount they get know, it too would be defensible, but I think that the money that rugby gets, and it is after alll a minority sport, numbers wise at least, and the money the IRFU will get for the re-development of their ground is highly questionable to say the least, if not downright indefensible, yet that does not attract the same hostility that the GAA do. Horse Racing is another area where I think it is impossible to justify the money they recieve.

[Fair_play_boy]

. . . This thread was started as "criticism" of a journalist and then had yet another whinge and moan at the GAA. This seems to be common practice for a lot of posters on this board, who whinge and moan about the GAA constantly without knowing any FACTS, just mistruths and urban myths. I pointed out that you could level much of the same criticism at the rugby crowd, probably ten times over, in fact, and the response from that corner was childish abuse and not a solitary post actually debating the issue.That might be to do with the way this thread went way off topic. Maybe a mod can split this thread, as it looks as if this discussion still has a good way to go.

[adamd164]

I really have no interest in arguing about the GAA, I've done it so much. This thread was indeed just started as a criticism of Dave Hannigan.