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There is no justification for the government to spend more money supporting male players in Gaelic games than their female counterparts, said the chairman of the Oireachtas Sports Committee.
Last year, the Government paid € 3.7 million to support Gaelic game players, with € 3 million available for men’s players and teams, and € 700,000 for women’s players and teams.
Niamh Smyth told RTÉ’s This Week program that she would ask her committee to investigate the disparity.
The funding gap has been heavily criticized by players, managers and representative organizations involved in the Gaelic women’s games.
Ms Smyth, a TD from Fianna Fáil said that “there is no justification for this”.
“The growth and appeal of the female Gaelic games is wonderful, but they are not financially reimbursed in the same way as male players.”
“As the chair of the Oireachtas committee responsible for this area, I will certainly endeavor to investigate why the funds are divided in such a way that these exceptional women do not receive funds in the same way as the men’s GAA,” she said.
“Some of these women will have children at home, they will be sacrificing work, careers and studies. The amount of travel involved is enormous.”
“They don’t have the same exposure to facilities or financing and it certainly is something we should consider as a government.”
He said he would ask his committee members to examine the disparity during public hearings.
“93% of players do not receive any travel expenses, 65% pay for gym memberships and 60% contribute to their own recovery costs”
In response to questions from RTÉ’s This Week program, the two Sport Department ministers have said that they recognize the importance of closing the funding gap between Gaelic players between male and female counties.
Ministers Catherine Martin and Jack Chambers said future government decisions regarding player support schemes will be based on the result of an independent review of these schemes commissioned by Sport Ireland.
The representative body for Gaelic female players across counties, the Gaelic Female Players Association, has also called for the funding gap to be closed.
He said Gaelic female players incur much higher expenses than many of their male counterparts when representing their counties at the top level.
WGPA President Maria Kinsella said the association’s analysis found that Gaelic players were “paying for their own boots, hurleys, equipment, travel and food.”
“93% of players do not receive any travel expenses, 65% pay for gym memberships and 60% contribute to their own recovery costs”
“There is a great financial burden to represent your county at the highest level.” she said.
Kerry Ladies senior soccer team co-director Declan Quill urged the government to address the funding imbalance for women’s teams.
He said that the players did not receive the same expenses or equipment as the men, and that they needed more additional funds.
“Since the Covid pandemic, the girls here were still training three nights a week, one night they were getting food. If you compare it to the men who are fed no matter what they do and where they go.”
“A lot of the women’s teams across counties are paying for their own equipment, but when I was playing for Kerry we used to shower with equipment that we had a lot.
He said the government’s allocation to support Gaelic female players was “regrettable”.
“Where did they get these figures from and who said it was okay to do that? I can’t believe it,” he said.
“If you were a minister and you had a son and a daughter playing soccer or hurling, wouldn’t you want both of them to be treated the same?”
“But when you sign something like this, or allocate funds like this, you are saying that the men’s game is more important, it is more important that we take care of the men, and here are a few pennies for the women … I’ll give you something, but we will not give them the same rights. ”
Sport Ireland operated two separate schemes to facilitate the distribution of government funds last year.
The GAA inter-county support scheme, valued at € 3 million, was only available to male players. It allowed individual player grants to be funneled directly to inter-county players through the GAA and the Gaelic Players Association.
A separate plan to support Inter-County Camogie and Ladies Football allocated a sum of € 700,000.
This scheme did not provide for grants for individual players, but instead provided funds to teams to improve access to training facilities, injury prevention and medical coverage, health checks, player performance, and national administration and governance.
Players between counties have criticized the disparity in funding and called for a change.
Libby Coppinger, a dual player from Cork, said: “Women spend exactly the same amount of time as men. So I don’t understand why there is a difference between the two.”
“We love the game, so we don’t want to complain, but we want the government to take gender and support out of the equation and look at it in terms of the effort that is being made, and acknowledge it.” “
Sport Ireland said that the schemes put in place to support Gaelic players are government decisions.
He said that Sport Ireland plays no role in establishing the amount of money available under each scheme.
However, he added that he has proposed an independent review of these schemes to consider future financing strategy.
The Sports Department said Ministers Martin and Chambers “recognize the importance of reducing and ultimately eliminating the current funding gap.”
He said future Government decisions regarding player support schemes will be based on the result of an independent review of these schemes commissioned by Sport Ireland.
A spokesperson for the ministers said that they had recently received a report from the Gaelic Women’s Players Association called “leveling the field”, which describes the financial burden on Gaelic female players.
They said they would study the report closely and meet with the WGPA in the coming weeks.
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