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Kerry’s co-director Declan Quill has welcomed the Gaelic Women’s Football Association’s decision to provide travel expenses for its players between counties, and called on the government to match the level of financial support provided to their male counterparts.
A report this week from the Gaelic Women’s Players Association found that 93% of inter-county soccer players or pitchers do not receive any travel expenses, with a fuel expense of € 55 per week on average.
Former Cork camouflage star Aoife Murray estimated that he had spent € 50,000 out of his own pocket on travel for 10 years.
An LGFA spokesperson later confirmed that an agreement had already been established for the 2020 season, for which an amount would be paid for the player’s mileage costs for this year.
Male players receive 50 cents per mile, which in itself was a previously agreed decrease between GAA and GPA due to the current drop in revenue at the association.
The government provides € 3 million in funding for elite male players, but only € 700,000 for women.
“I am delighted to see that the LGFA has provided assistance to the girls to come to the games. I think it is absolutely vital,” Quill, who runs the team together with Darragh Long, told RTÉ’s Sunday Sport.
“I think the LGFA made a very positive statement by giving the expenses for the girls to come to the game and that should be a stepping stone in the right direction. They should go ahead with that now and (give) more for the girls.
“You can see in a lot of the tweets that came out of the players who played in the last 10 years, the amount of money they spent traveling alone.
“That’s outside of the physical therapist costs, paying for his own equipment, paying for his own meals, all that sort of thing. That really has to be looked at.
“The government has to step up and give additional funds. Why are they giving men 3 million euros and women only 700,000 euros? That doesn’t make sense to me.
“I would not be looking less for men, I would be looking for more for women.”
“It’s a great derby and a huge prize if we win the semi-final in Ireland. We are looking forward to next weekend.”
Quill spoke after his team defeated Cavan 5-14 to 0-13 in their first TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship game of the season.
Next week they will face Munster’s rivals Cork with Group 1 supremacy and a place in the Irish semi-finals at stake.
“It’s great to get over the first hurdle, we are absolutely thrilled,” said Quill.
“We were very rusty in the first half, it showed in our shooting, but that got better as the game progressed.
“But it had been a long time since we played a competitive game, since March, so the rust was going to be there, but we got over it and kicked some good scores in the second half.
“The girls are delighted and we are ready to move on to the next game next weekend.
“Today we had some injuries that we will have to take into account.
“It’s a great derby and a huge prize if we win the semi-final in Ireland. We look forward to next weekend.”
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