ANTRIM, CARLOW, WESTMEATH and Laois are set to receive an accumulated total of €900,000 over a period of five years from GAA to develop hurling in their counties.
GAA President Liam O’Neill confirmed at today’s Congress in Croke Park that the association’s Central Council will make the substantial investment as they target the improvement of the performance of the senior hurling sides in those counties.
The funding is part of plans to inject over a million euro into developing hurling. €100,000 will be invested in player development projects in other hurling development counties.
This means that an extra €1,000,000 will be channelled into the development of the game over the next five years. The investment will be subject to annual submissions by the four counties.
These submissions must reflect key aims and objectives of the programme and application for funding should also be subject to compliance with reporting and review mechanisms.
The four named counties will be entitled to make an annual submission seeking funding of up to €45,000 [a combined total of €180,000 per annum]. This submission will be based on a plan for the following year to be submitted in November.
An additional sum of €20,000 per annum will be set aside for project based applications submitted by other developing hurling counties amounting to €1,000,000 over a five year period.
Direct payments will not be made to the participating counties but will be made by Central Council to suppliers on the basis of invoices received.
While the overall objective should be to improve the performance of the senior inter-county team, in reality this cannot be achieved without having regard for the underage structures – up to and including U.21 level – that ultimately underpin success at senior inter-county level.
In this regard each county must commit to a minimum spend of €10,000 per annum on improving/enhancing hurling development at minor and U21 level within the county.
