Kilkenny Co Board record financial deficit at Convention

Finances were the hot topic of the night as the annual meeting of the Kilkenny GAA Convention was held in O’Loughlin Gaels GAA club on Monday night.

For the first time in a number of years, Kilkenny recorded a deficit in its accounts of €159, 679.

This is in contrast to a surplus figure of €23,157 from a year ago and while the non appearance in the All-Ireland final certainly played a part, there was also other notable factors.

Spending on Grants and Promotional, Administration Costs, upkeep of Grounds and Match Day Costs were all up from 2024 but the biggest leap was in Coaching and Games where the county spent €343,541 which was in contrast to €86,535 from the year before.

The €257,000 increase in spending on Coaching and Games can mainly be put down to the introduction of the Na Cait Óga Kilkenny GAA Academy which has just completed its first year.

Elsewhere spending on Kilkenny county teams came in at over €1.2 million which is down slightly on the year before (€1, 320,724) although there are some interesting increases all the same.

Team manager and selectors (55,586), Backroom team personnel (210,473), Travel and Accommodation (85,890) and Team training weekends (85,688) all showed an increase as the demand for county team spending continues to rise and Treasurer Barry Hickey urged a word of caution as the board can’t afford to have those sort of deficits ongoing.

On the income side of things, there was a couple of downgrades with Supporters Club, Donations, Sponsorship and Corporate Night all taking a hit after the senior hurlers’ failure to qualify for the All-Ireland decider though there was more positive news with the Golf Classic during the summer in particular proving to be a hugely successful venture as it raised €51,116 which trumped the €6,560 figure from a year before.

While the likes of Wexford, Galway and Mayo are among the counties to be investigated by Revenue, Kilkenny GAA look to have their affairs in order on that point.

As a result of all this, the GAA organised an urgent meeting of all county chairpersons, secretaries and treasurers on Tuesday night to discuss the Revenue’s risk reviews of counties.

Other points of note on the night were Nickey Brennan being put forward by his own club Conahy as the Honorary President of Kilkenny GAA.

On accepting of the role, the former GAA President also called on the clubs in the county to voice their opinion as the County Board needs their support and that there are many challenges ahead.

The Community Radio Kilkenny City commentator outlined the need for a centre of excellence in the county as he feels Kilkenny are falling a bit behind in that regard.

During his chairman address PJ Kenny added the great joy that Kilkenny took in hosting the All-Ireland under-20 final between Offaly and Tipperary to a sold-out attendance at UPMC Nowlan Park to mark the Centenary of the death of James Nowlan.

Although there was no elected positions up for grabs, with the status quo remaining the same at top table in 2025, it was still an informative evening over the two and a half hours duration.

2025 Kilkenny County Board
Chairman: PJ Kenny
Vice-Chairman: Jim Fennelly
Secretary: Seamus Reade
Treasurer: Barry Hickey
PRO: Mary Morgan
Coaching Officer: Patrick O’Flynn
Oifigeach Gaelach: Shane Walsh
Children’s Officer: Caroline Clifford
Planning and Training Officer: Shane Kavanagh
Demographics Officer: Seamus Knox
Central Council Rep: Conor Denieffe
Leinster Council Rep: Paul Fitzgerald and Patrick O’Flynn
Delegates to Leinster Convention: Conor Denieffe and Pat Henderson
Delegates to Congress; Jim Fennelly and Barry Hickey.