More GAA culture wars. Dublin received more development funding off the GAA in 2014 than all the other counties combined.
Dublin received a total of €1.46 million off the GAA last year.
The battle for top spot in funding terms wasn't close. The county to receive the second biggest allocation in funding terms was Cork, who received €69,000.
At the lower end, counties such as Longford, Leitrim and Monaghan received just €39,000.
Pat Nolan in the Mirror has pointed to one important caveat in the figures, where coaches in Dublin are paid by the county board, whereas the provincial council foots the bill for this in other counties.
Defending the disparity, Padraic Duffy pointed to the obvious population factors that should be taken into account, but he did acknowledge that fairness and equality would be taken into account more in the coming years.
We have discussed this on numerous occasions in the past. We are trying to get a balance in terms of what Dublin get - and also what larger counties get and what smaller counties get.
The point I would make about Dublin is that if you want to expand the games, the biggest challenge for us in the urban areas. We cannot expect to treat Dublin the same as anywhere else, it is a huge population.
To develop the Association in the biggest population base in the country means innovation, it means expense and it means resources. We are putting more into Dublin because we want to develop the games.
Duffy maintained the targetted investment in the capital in the new century had been good for the GAA.
There are far more kids playing the game in Dublin than they were 10 or 15 years ago. So the investment has been successful.
I do take the point that we need to look at fairness and equity and all of that and over a period of time, we will do that. But it’s important to realise it has been successful.
[Mirror]
