Dublin GAA have received €15, 427, 560 more than any other county in coaching and games development grants over the last decade.
Figures compiled by Sunday World journalist Sean McGoldrick show that from 2007 to 2017, Dublin received €16, 612, 847 in coaching and games development grants while the next highest garnering county, Cork, received just €1, 185, 287 over the same period.
Why out how your county received in coaching/game development grants from GAA central funds in the last decade #GAA pic.twitter.com/9LuGb1m3bH
— Sean McGoldrick (@SeanMcGoldrick1) February 2, 2018
Cork have by far and away the most amount of GAA clubs with 259, well ahead of Dubin (134), Antrim (108) and Limerick (101), however, Antrim rank fourth on the list with €907, 773 in grants while Limerick rank 11th on the list with €771, 537.
Interestingly, Mayo and Donegal, who have appeared in three of the last four All-Ireland finals between them, rank 26th and 27th on the list respectively.
Mayo have received just €584, 561 while Donegal have received €574, 738.
In 2016, Dublin received €1.46 million – approximately 14% – of the total figure of €10.14 million that the GAA distributed to fund games development in counties.
In 2017, Dublin received a total of €1,298, 630 in games development funding, however, the outlay of €1,978,055 for Dublin was eclipsed by Cork who received a total outlay of €2, 138, 845 with €1, 333, 333 for capital grant funding.
Dublin also generated €1,462,529 in commercial revenue last year, in addition to the €175,000 that every county receives under ‘basic distribution’, as noted above.
To take GAA games development funding of 31 counties per player to Dublin level would need budget increase from €3,138,907 to €90,673,525.40
— Ewan MacKenna (@EwanMacKenna) September 19, 2017
Dublin have won three consecutive All-Ireland titles, and 11 of the last 12 Leinster titles, but GAA Director General Páraic Duffy has dismissed suggestions that the county should be split in two.
Duffy wrote in his GAA Ard Stiúrthóir report:
“In achieving their five All-Ireland titles in the past seven years, the margin of victory was a single point in four finals (one after a replay) and a three-point victory over Kerry in 2015.
“This hardly constitutes evidence of a county stream-rolling over all opposition, or proof of the need to divide a county because it is vastly superior to the rest and must be broken up into two or three divisions for inter-competition.
“The history of our games, and of sport in general, tells us that Dublin won’t win forever. Apart from that, there are a couple of observations to be made.
“First, the main reason for Dublin’s current success is that they have an outstanding group of players and an exceptional team management.
“One of the reasons why Dublin footballers generate support is that they give Dubliners a unique opportunity to celebrate their proud Dublin identity.
“While it may well be a mild and humorous northside/southside divide in Dublin, this geographical affiliation comes nowhere near matching the passionate identification of all Dubliners with their team.
“One is led to wonder if the ‘divide Dublin’ proponents have given any thought to what the GAA would lose if Dublin were to be split. Have they given any thought to what Dubliners would lose?
“And is the sight of Dublin supporters on Hill 16 not one of the great spectacles in Irish sport? And are we not all looking forward to seeing Dublin supporters in their thousands heading out to Dublin city to follow their team, which the championship format from 2018 will allow?
“So, neither on competitive grounds, nor on account of the unfairness of depriving Dubliners of the pleasure of expressing their local historical identity through the GAA (as every other GAA supporter is allowed to do) should we countenance the splitting up of Dublin.
“There is all to lose in doing so, and nothing to gain.”
