A Galway club has called on the Leinster Council to end what it calls the "unsporting and unfair" distribution of coaching funding and development grants.
Salthill-Knocknacarra have asked for support from all Leinster counties, but singled out Dublin GAA for help due to what they called "the clear benefits conferred on your county due to increased funding you received over the past 15 years".
The city club is asking for a response from each county before Galway's annual convention on Monday week, 11 December, claiming that agreement could be worth as much as €400,000 annually to the county.
In a statement, the clubs says: "In the absence of a positive response from each of your counties and/or the Leinster GAA Council, it will be our intention to pass the below motion at Galway GAA Convention and bring to National Congress to ensure this is addressed through Croke Park and we have written to every club in Galway this morning to that effect."
The Galway hurlers have been playing in the Leinster Championship since 2009, lifting the Bob O'Keefe Cup on three occasions between 2012 and 2018.
The Tribesmen have played home games in that competition since the introduction of the group stages in 2018, but Salthill-Knocknacarra say that with Connacht GAA [where the Galway footballers still compete] able to provide less than 20% of the funding that Leinster can, that funds from the latter should now also be extended to clubs in the county.
The statement added: "From 2009 to 2016, Galway Hurling was not provided any 'home games' for our participation in the championship and this was compounded by the lack of any rebate to the county in terms of gate receipts in spite of many thousands of Dublin-based Galway people attending these games in Croke Park during this period.
"In recent years, whilst this unfairness of no home games and % rebate of gate receipts has been addressed, there has been no legacy go-back on the imbalance of funding rebate in this period nor has Leinster Council given Galway [in spite of the significant contribution to the finances of the province] any equality in terms of providing a fair share to our county from the Leinster GAA Games and Coaching funding, which recently totalled €5.8m, or the Leinster GAA Club and County grants, which recently totalled €1.8m, for instance.
Salthill-Knocknacarra said those funds were distributed "to the complete exclusion of Galway GAA despite of our significant role in generating gate receipts on an annual basis for this provincial council due to our participation in Leinster GAA Hurling Championship".
"It is our club's view and shared by many clubs in Galway that this is unsporting and unfair.
"We estimate that if our county was treated on a proportionate basis and addressed the legacy funding issue, this would total €400k per annum over the next five years or €2m in total to our clubs."
