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THE PRESIDENT OF the GAA has said the decision not to increase the number people allowed at an outdoor gatherings is “a hammer blow” to the organisation.
Speaking this morning ahead of this weekend’s resumption of club championship games around the country, John Horan told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the size of a GAA ground allows for greater numbers of people to socially distance.
At present, government restrictions on gatherings are 50 people indoors and 200 people outdoors. It had been planned that these limits would be expanded to 100 and 500 respectively from next week, but this will now not happen until 10 August at the earliest.
Horan said this morning this would greatly impact GAA clubs.
“The change in attendance guidelines has delivered a hammer blow to the organisation. We put the return to the club game first to benefit all our members, and to help our county boards survive for those clubs.
But our county boards were relying on an increase of 500 as a way of being able to cater for the demand on the ground for our supporters. And they now have the extra burden of attempting to continue to police 200 being in attendance.If you take those that are involved in the actual stewarding of a ground out of it, you’re probably looking at 120 supporters going to a game. If you work out the dimensions of a GAA pitch, it allows for social distancing of four metres between everybody attending the match.
Horan also said that the GAA is encouraging everybody attending a game to wear a face covering and that the smaller numbers in attendance are ” a bit severe” on the organisation.
“I’d call this morning openly, as President of the GAA, to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to go back and review those figures for us as an organisation. The risk-factor is 19 to 1 in comparison to indoors,” he added.
Yesterday, organisers of the Eid Al Adha celebration due to take place in Croke Park have asked the government for special permission to allow 500 people to attend the event.
It follows a successful request from Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin earlier this month for the government to allow places of worship to hold a higher number of people indoors.
Speaking about the large stadia the GAA has access to, Horan said this should be considered when limiting the number of people attending events or matches.
“We’ve got stadia throughout the country which can cater from anything from 6,000 to 50,000 people, and to say that you could only have 120 supporters in? I think the volunteers in our organisation have acted totally responsibly during the pandemic. And I don’t think if we allowed them to increase the attendance from 200 to 500 that they would act irresponsibly,” he added.
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Perhaps it is time that JIMMY and the rest cut the cost of membership and there own salaries
Has he disclosed his salary and the value of his add ons ect what does it come to over the year
Jimmy, you are a bit of an eejit if you don’t know the effects of a pay cut!
Mind you, most of your members are reasonably well paid in secure pensionable jobs, not like the rest of us.
The government over employed in the public sector in the boom years to artificially inflate the figures, reality is a hard pill to swallow but a necessary one for the survival and recovery of the country.
30% of teachers are now part time casual workers on very low money.
Jimmy give us a break…sure the amount you and your trade union buddies earn nearly comes to the 1 billion mark!!
You employee. Us employer. You don’t make demands.
Vincent if u live a democracy (we don’t). It’s your right (privilege is a better word, right aren’t rights if they can take them away from u, are they?)
Anyways workers have the privilege to contest changes, yes?
I agree though no union leader/ TD should be on more than 3 times the industrial wage, as they have lost touch with those they are there to represent.
Jack o Connor recent outburst at those who disagree with him, is an example
Contest changes indeed, but if a company is haemorrhaging money, the company must act. Likewise the state must act in this case. Otherwise long term everyone pays more through increased taxation. Then again, selfless acts aren’t too common in Ireland today.
Brian. Agreed, it’s the method they are using which is unjust
But if a company is failing due to leadership issues it will make no difference what the workers scarf ice to keep it afloat, as the steering group of the company will repeat errors, or bow to external pressures again & again
Also to get everybody on board true leadership must be shown for example a 10% cut for staff, should be mirrored with a 20% cut for Mgt, want to drive change u must live that change, only thing FG are driving is this country off a fiscal cliff!
Why do all union chiefs have beards are are from north Dublin?
#Vincent Dolan, just because a person is an employee doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. Look at how Foxconn treat their workers, that’s what all employers want, that’s the way we are going in both private and public sectors. Less of the public/private division and more workers standing together.
It’s not rocket science Jimmy. It means that we shouldn’t have to borrow as much over the next few years. Still need to reduce the budget defecit.
What annoys me is the fact that most TD,S are claiming 60 grand per year in Unvouched Tax Free expenses and everyone seems to think its acceptable while the same gombeen men tell us they must slash peoples incomes !!!!!
I fully accept that I am going to have to take a significant pay cut. However, for every €1,000 I’m cut I will pay €420 less in income tax, about €100 less USC, over €100 less pension contributions to the government – over €600. The €400 less I’ll bring home will reduce discretionary spending – loss of another €80 in VAT. Down to €300 now. If 100 like me are in the same boat then that’s €30,000 less spent in the economy – 1 job gone as a result.
Savings of €1 billion in the pay bill does not mean €1 billion less in the deficit
Yep, we should obviously just give everybody in the PS a payrise of 1000 euros thus resulting in an increase in the tax take, and solving all our economic problems in one fell swoop.
Very good point from unite. Cuts in some ways are justified but there are many questions.
How much of the savings of 1 bn are to come from
People earning less than 50 k pa, 50 to 70 k, 70k to 90k, etc.?
What prices under the governments control will be reduced or held steady?
How much will be spent on stimulating growth?
When will the burden of income tax on the lower paid be reduced to cover the cost of other taxes, such as property, water, waste,
What is the tax strategy for the next 5 years (e.g. Will vat return to 21% max and when?) also when will corporations start to pay a reasonable share of the taxes?
‘How much will be spent on growth’…when the government reduce their wage bill, there is no extra money to be spent, just less money to borrow. Try to have some knowledge of the subject before entering into the debate.
It has already been said that any savings will go to pay the illegal gambling debt. Which part of this do people not understand? Jack and Jimmy would do better to get Begg to withdraw his outrageous support for the property tax.
Brian, you should read the comment again and you will see that there is no contradiction in what I say. Furthermore, the government is committed to spending some of the proceeds of the sale of assets on growth stimulation. I am happy I know enough about the situation to enter a debate with anyone open minded on the subject.
“Participants in the talks have not been told why the cuts are so necessary”
Where have the unions been for the past 5 years?
We’re broke!!!
David, Ireland is not broke, quite a wealthy country in fact
You’re right, we’re minted. All this talk of borrowing from the IMF is mere waffle.
How so? Please enlighten us.
JIMMY you should know better than anyone you’re members have nothing left to give simple word every union official used to know but seem to have forgot No
Your.
Punctuation, grammar and spelling fail
A 10% cut would take a minimum of €50 out of 290,000 workers weekly pay which is subsequently taken out of the economy with less income tax received by the government and less income to be spent on goods and services from Irish companies by the workers and therefore less vat received. Another sensible plan please
I was simply using this as example Anto, not a plan, but lets here your plan?
Brian look up stats surrounding wealth per country, disregard those countries who are major oil producers, then u might be surprised, plus ur mixing up wealth extracted by a Govt, not available wealth in a country, these are the details TDs use to confuse you, just look a little deeper!
Because all the money used to pay those wages just falls out of the sky, doesn’t it. Clueless.
Good old Jimmy. He never changes his tune.
So Jimmy believes no need to balance the budget.
We can simply keep borrowing money for ever. We can keep spending more money than we take in as taxes.
What a great idea, sure our lenders will not be rude enough to ask for repayment.
Jimmy has not changed much since his days in the Socailist Workers Party.
I would say these questions have been devised by the likes of Michael Taft, the UNITE economist who has articles on this site now and again. He is most certainly not in the SWP.
have your say