Galway have joined a group of counties proposing motions to GAA Congress that would ensure games development funding is calculated based on membership numbers.
From 2007-2020 Dublin received a proportion of development funding that exceeded its share of the population in the 26 counties (39% to 28%) as the Association sought to rejuvenate underage Gaelic Games in the capital.
But the Dubs' dominance of the Leinster and All-Ireland senior football championships over the past decade, and the county’s superior commercial income, has led to questions about whether the policy is still necessary.
On Monday, GAA director general Tom Ryan wrote to county chairs to tell them that a sub-group of the association’s Games Development Committee is "devising a model and mechanism for the distribution of coaching and games funding."
"A set of principles was agreed to guide the development of the new model to ensure all counties are supported through creation of clear criteria and the application of an equitable model to support the allocation of funding," Ryan said.
A campaign for a change in how funding is distributed that has been spearheaded by former Westmeath footballer John Connellan, who has been promoting a motion that specifies: "All Coaching and Development Funding must be allocated to individual counties on an equal basis based on registered GAA members in the preceding year in each county up to a maximum variance of 5%. Any proposal to allocate Coaching and Development funding in excess of a 5% variance must be brought to Annual Congress every two years for approval with a transparent plan and business case for such increased funding."
Galway have now joined their Connacht counterparts Mayo and Roscommon in passing a motion to that effect at their annual convention last night and it will now go forward to February’s GAA Congress.
At the same meeting, Pat Kearney was succeeded as Galway chair by Paul Bellew, who was previously hurling board chairman, after serving the maximum five years in the position.
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