This article is from page 76 of the 2011-12-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 76 JPG
CHRISTMAS came early for the clubs of Clare on Friday evening as the Munster GAA Physical Development Project grants were dispersed in Clare Headquarters in Clareabbey. In all, € 109,892 was contributed to 12 clubs as well two schools (Kilishen National School and St Anne’s School, Killaloe) for development done, with clubs applying in 2011 receiving a mimimum of 10.98% of their total spend in grant assistance.
Munster GAA Vice Chairman and O’Callaghan’s Mills clubman Robert Frost was in attendance on Friday to present the cheques to the various clubs and reward them for their continued development, despite the harsh ecomonic climate.
“As a Clare man, Vice Chairman of the Munster Council and incoming Chairman in 2013, I am delighted to be here in Clare to present the cheques. It’s always nice to come back to your own. I’m a former Chairman of the County Board and I fully appreciate the great work that the clubs are doing within the county.
“I’ve been to all the six counties in Munster this year and the clubs in Clare have facilities as good as any other county. The amount of work that has been done in clubs like Doora/Barefield, Miltown Malbay, Broadford, Wolfe Tones and Lissycasey has been excellent this year and indeed the amount of work that has been done for several years has been immense in places like Sixmilebridge, The Mills, Clarecastle and Cooraclare so it’s very gratifying for me to be back and see all those excellent facilities.
“As a Clare man, I attend a good few matches in the county as well as a normal supporter so I’m very much up to date with everything that is happening within the county.”
In addition to the expenditure in relation to physical development, Munster GAA has also provided other financial support in 2011 across the province.
“If you look at this year alone, you are talking of a figure of € 351,346 coming back to Clare and this has been our smallest figure in recent years because our development grants were cut down. In the last five years previous to this, we have over € 2 million euro given back to Clare clubs and the county and there is a lot of money going into coaching too.
“A lot of the funding comes from the Sports Council, and the government and the Sports Council have cut their funding so we in the Munster Council appreciate the great work that is being done in coaching and we have to keep that great work going. So we will be spending between € 460,000 and € 500,000 this year to prop up the coaching and keep it on par with the way it has been.”
The Munster GAA Chairman elect for 2013 is also keen to maintain that physical development project assistance for clubs into the future.
“We find that within clubs, there is a lot more voluntary work being done that ever before and if you are doing some development, it’s the right time because labour costs and overall building costs are down. On the other hand, it’s also harder for clubs to fundraise because to be fair, the people just haven’t got the money.
“The number of applications we received this year was down by 100 throughout the province so that is a sign of the times but we in the Munster Council will help clubs as much as we can.”