Convention sees a huge increase in spending on Kilkenny county teams

The annual Kilkenny GAA County Convention took place in a well accomplished O’Loughlin Gaels GAA Club last Monday evening.

The get-together was done and dusted in just over two hours with plenty of chat and discussion taking place even if there was only one or two votes on the night.

The state of the county’s finances naturally came in for much interest and despite the 2023 total income of€3,036,172 trumping the total expenditure of €3,013,014 and ensuring a surplus of €23,158, the fact that the surplus was down 90k on the previous year was a bit of a concern for county treasurer Barry Hickey.

The majority of the deficit is made up in the spending on county team’s which came to €971,022, a whopping 200k increase on €770,746 from a year ago after Kilkenny qualified for the All-Ireland senior hurling final once again.

The rising costs across the country with regards dining out meals and hotels has certainly been a contributory factor towards the Kilkenny county teams and those elements form a big reason as to why the Kilkenny team hasn’t stayed in Dublin for the previous two All-Ireland final appearances with the Kilkenny senior team’s only overnight stay occurring for the away game in Belfast against Antrim.

Hickey also outlined that club championship gate receipts remain fairly static in comparison to other counties where they are on the up.

While the overall income and expenditure is up, the financial deficit in surplus from 2022 is something the Kilkenny Co Board will be aiming to rectify after they revealed that they got in touch with Phil Hogan before the All-Ireland final for some advice.

Since then Hogan has presented the Kilkenny GAA Corporate Plan 2024-2030 to the December meeting of the County Board where the plan aims to bring new investment to Kilkenny GAA.

Kilkenny have already identified a number of key areas that are crucial to its success going forward including:
 -Support a ‘Player First’ mindset
- Harness the power of the School-Club Dynamic
 -Establish the Kilkenny GAA Academy
 -Embrace integration as the pathway forward.

It is anticipated that the sum of approximately €10 million will be invested in the provision of facilities, coaching and pitches in the next five years.

Elsewhere there was only one nomination vote on the night with Paul Fitzgerald (Fenians) and Patrick O’Flynn (St Martins) seeing off Carmel Kenny and Tom O’Reilly in the race to become the Leinster Council Representatives.

There was also one motion on the night with the Clara club bringing the recommendation to amend the Kilkenny GAA Bye-Laws 2023 as follows to include ‘County Children’s Officer on the Management Committee’.

After a passionate plea from the current Children’s Officer Caroline Clifford, the motion passed by the majority of those present.

See next week’s Kilkenny People for more coverage from Convention.

2024 Kilkenny Co Board Officers
Chairman: PJ Kenny (Lisdowney)
Vice Chairman: Jim Fennelly (Danesfort)
Secretary: Seamus Reade (Dicksboro)
Treasurer: Barry Hickey (John Lockes)
PRO: Mary Morgan (Piltown)
Coaching Officer: Patrick O’Flynn (St Martin’s)
Oifigeach Gaelach: Shane Walsh (Windgap)
Children’s Officer: Caroline Clifford (Clara)
Planning and Training Officer: Shane Kavanagh (Dicksboro)
Demographics Officer: Seamus Knox (Dunnamaggin)
Central Council Representative: Conor Denieffe (O’Loughlin Gaels)
Leinster Council Representative’s: Paul Fitzgerald (Fenians) and Patrick O’Flynn (St Martin’s)
Delegates to Leinster Convention: Conor Denieffe (O’Loughlin Gaels) and Pat Henderson (Fenians)
Delegates to Congress: Jim Fennelly (Danesfort) and Barry Hickey (John Lockes)