GAELIC GAMES ARE is worth an estimated €2.87 billion to Irish society, according to a new report.
An analysis of the economic impact of Gaelic games, its social value and return on investment has been undertaken by Sheffield Hallam University’s Sport Industry Research Group.
The report was commissioned by the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association.
The social return for every €1 invested in Gaelic games is at least €2.30 and could be as much as €3.96, according to the report.
A spend of €1.244 billion in GAA activities resulted in outcomes valued to Irish life worth €2.87 billion, the report stated.
These include: €31.06 million for health; €556.48 million for subjective wellbeing; €1.224 billion for social capital and €1.056 billion for the replacement cost of volunteering.
Lead researcher, Professor Simon Shibli, said: “This report shows that Gaelic games is good for the economy and good for society.”
Jarlath Burns president of the GAA, said: “For the first time the Association has been able to secure facts and figures that confirm what we have always known – that Gaelic games activity makes an enormously positive impact on society through our involvement in communities, and that this in turn, benefits the economy all across the island.
“In a broad sense, it shows that investment in sport matters and that it is something beneficial.”
You can read the full report here.
At least.
If covid showed us anything it was the place the GAA and sports in general hold in the Irish psyche.
You don’t know what you have until you’ve lost it sometimes.
Grown men in my area were going to the local GAA just to sit and look out on the empty pitch (socially distanced of course).
@Stanley Marsh: As an exile I wasn’t aware of that. Definitely sounds like there’s film or two in yr anecdote!
@Brendan Griffin: 2nd part didn’t publish.
Maybe nor a future length but surely a couple of shorts. And even an ad for a famous alcoholic drink too !
Silly to try and put a commercial value on an amateur organisation, in my opinion. It is a priceless fabric of the whole community. That is not measurable in money. Handy fee for some consulting firm.
@Tony Brennan: It’s not the GAA they’re valuing, it’s general participation in the sport and the impact to the wider public and economy if GAA as a sort was wiped out
@Conor Lynott: Exactly… the article literally states the benefit of the GAA (and I suppose sport in general) to society can be measured in the cost to other sectors if the GAA did not exist. The €1 bn value of volunteering is a bit confusing though, because the cost of volunteering would not exist if the GAA did not exist. I suppose their is a value to each of those volunteers but how can that be measured. I think the figure for cost to the HSE would actually be much higher in reality as mental health costs to society are not measured by the HSE due to under funding, but very often in the prison service, courts or private health care.
And?????
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: If you have to ask that it doesn’t say a lot about you. Whether or not you like GAA is irrelevant. The fact is that GAA is the most popular form of team sport by a distance. That also makes it one of the most popular physical activities. It’s also a fact that there is a connection between physical activity and good mental health. Poor mental health also costs the state millions. So that is why they talk about social value and put a figure on it.
@Conor Lynott: Well said. I will never understand some Irish people’s hatred towards gaa. They’re both such amazing sports. Especially hurling