In his Irish Times column today, Jim McGuinness took a calculated decision to air Donegal's 'dirty linen in public' on the matter of players' holidays.
McGuinness revisited the issue of Donegal's post 2014 team holiday in Dubai. Seven members of the Donegal playing and management setup were, for various reasons, unable to travel on the team holiday last year. This number included McGuinness himself.
McGuinness said he was told at the time that holiday vouchers could not be issued to those who couldn't travel because there was an 'implication with revenue'.
However, McGuinness wrote that when he consulted with Croke Park, this was not the case.
A total of €80,000 was handed over by Croke Park for the holiday fund, and if the non-travelling parties receive a voucher then there is no implication. Those I spoke to within the GAA were sympathetic to what was said.
We spoke to the Donegal PRO Ed Byrne to get the other side of the story.
He told us that the county board will be releasing an official statement in due course, but did tell us that the treasurer had simply followed the guidelines surrounding holidays as laid down by the GAA.
I do know that it was brought up at a county committee meeting and at that time, and our county treasurer read out the guidelines.
We did follow the guidelines as laid down that we couldn't issue vouchers for holidays. That was the advice given to us at the time by Croke Park.
Whatever guidelines were sent down to him (the treasurer, Ciaran Kelly) were followed to the letter of the law... I'm not sure if those guidelines have changed in the meantime but we followed the guidelines at the time.
Whatever was sent to us was sent by those who deal with finance in Croke Park. I'm not sure who Jim has spoken to. I'm not sure who gave him the advice. I wouldn't be privy to that. But certainly, as far as I'm aware, the guidelines that were sent down to Ciaran Kelly were followed.
We may hear more about this in the coming days...
Read more: Jim McGuinness Airs Donegal's Dirty Laundry In Public With Holiday Complaints
