GAA President John Horan has again defended the Central Council's decision on ticket price hikes, stating that the extra monies will benefit the association at grassroots level.
Horan was responding to questions when addressing Seanad Éireann on Tuesday and added that there was a clear rationale for the decision made.
"We have decided as an association to increase our grants to clubs throughout this country from €2million to €4million in the space of four years and that has to be done by getting funds," he said.
Horan went on to say that grants to clubs will increase employment in local areas because it will go into infrastructure projects in the areas and "that is where we are putting half a million of that increased revenue."
Mr Horan also spoke about the importance of GAA to our diaspora and he said that €200,000 of the increased revenue is going to international GAA clubs.
He cited the construction of new stands at county grounds in Navan, Newbridge and Waterford and said those works could not be completed without a revenue stream.
He pointed out that last week in the height of the criticism about the prices, he said that the GAA sold over 3,000 more season tickets than they had at the same time last year.
"The decision made at Central Council was unanimous because we made the case to the people that we were raising the prices to do something with the money for our membership. We will not apologise for doing good work on the ground," said Mr Horan.
