€5 Charge for U16s attending league matches 'an absolute disgrace'

As the levies imposed on Cork clubs to help with the debt surrounding Páirc Uí Chaoimh become a focal talking point, likely to spill over into the next county board meeting, there is another financial topic on the agenda.

That is the introduction of a €5 charge on U16s for National League games, in both the top two tiers of hurling and football.

A move made by the GAA that Youghal delegate Liam Ó Laochdha is vehemently opposed to.

“I would have spoken strongly against the €5 that has been levied on the U16s,” he begins.

“As one delegate quoted, I think it’s an own goal by the GAA. 

It’s an absolute disgrace.

“Who’s going to pay for it? it’s going to be dad or mam. They’ll be going to a match and it’s already €20 a head, that’s €40. Then two or three kids that’s €10 or €15 extra each way.

“There was a tradition long ago that you’d fire in your son and two friends of his and now you’re going to be charged for that,” he explains. “I think that’s going nowhere, there’re a lot of objections to it around the country and I would agree totally with the Clare County Council.” 

PROTEST

The move made by Clare County Council was to protest the GAA’s decision made last December.

According to the GAA, the decision was made on the grounds of health and safety, with several county boards requesting that a charge on U16s be brought in.

“John Arnold objected to it at convention if memory serves me right,” says Ó Laochdha. “But we were thinking of other things that day. It didn’t get much discussion, now that we’ve had time to think about it, I think it’s shocking.

For Bride Rovers delegate John Arnold, the frustration lies in the way it was introduced.

He feels that it wasn’t democratic, a feature that is becoming more and more prevalent in recent years.

The club levies are another example of that.

“The issue of the €5 charge for U16s going to national league games, we asked if that was voted on at central council and told no.

“Was it mentioned at central council? Apparently not. 

It’s just brought in and that’s it.

“The GAA rulebook seems to have changed an awful lot in the last couple of years. A lot of decisions can be made correctly and legally without having things proposed and seconded.

“We pride ourselves on grassroots democracy, some people would have thought maybe we were too democratic.

“Before you might have had hours and hours of debate, and that might have been too repetitive, but at least it gave everyone a chance to have their say,” Arnold explains. “The county board have the power to make those decisions.

“We were putting people forward to go to congress and they were proposed and seconded, we were electing people to the CCC, they were proposed and seconded, we were electing different committees, proposed and seconded.

“But when it comes to a decision like this, no one [is] proposed and seconded. 

That’s the way GAA rules seem to have gone.

“With the issue of no more cash at turnstiles, that was never proposed and seconded that we adopt that in Cork. It just came in.”