IT IS OVER seven years since Páraic Duffy circulated a paper on the issue of payments to inter-county managers and as the outgoing Director-General released his final annual report today, he devoted attention to an issue that he feels must still be urgently addressed.
Speaking at a press briefing in Croke Park, Duffy was keen to point out his belief that not all managers are getting paid but there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest payments are made at inter-county and club level.
For Duffy the issue strikes to the core of the GAA and is one that needs to be grasped.
“We need to address it because we can’t claim on the one hand to be amateur and on the other throw a blind eye to this. It’s down to the members of the GAA to decide what kind of an organisation do they want into the future.”
In his published report, Duffy had outlined why the issue needs to be addressed.
“I wrote in 2010 that the choice facing the association was a simple one: either we do nothing in the certain knowledge that nothing will change and that in five or ten years we would still be lamenting the damage to our ethos and values – or we decided that it would be irresolute and defeatist not to confront directly a practice that we proclaim to be a blemish on the association.
“The choice is the same one now, and the need to address it even greater. I believe that many members of clubs are uneasy about the practice of paying managers and coaches outside of legitimate expenses, yet no one seems able to stop the practice.
“One idea floated is that counties and clubs should be allowed to avail of the services of members only from within their own county or from within their own club. It is a proposal with obvious merits, but which also raises concerns.
“Many clubs and counties have benefited, without breaching our amateur-status rules, from the expertise of outside coaches who enjoy coaching/managing but for whom the pathway to the main positions in their own club or county is blocked.
“We must be clear on the issue here: it is not about availing of the services of ‘outsiders’; it is not about making payments in breach of our amateur-status ethos.”
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