Alarming financial news given to Offaly GAA delegates – but treasurer optimistic the wheel will turn
Offaly GAA have spent a lot more than budgeted but big streams of income still to come in
OFFALY GAA treasurer, Dervill Dolan had some alarming financial news for delegates when he presented a financial report to a County Board meeting on Monday evening.
Delegates were told that the board were over half a million euro in the red on their accounts with the end of the financial year approaching. Mr Dolan revealed that they were a whopping €580,529 in the red on June 30. Income at that stage amounted to €1,386,522 but was offset by expenditure at €1,967,037.
It would be a common occurrence for the board to be down money at that stage of the season as they dealt with bills from the inter-county season while much of their own income has yet to come in. However, the Clara man made the sobering revelation that this deficit was €151,395 more than they had budgeted.
There are rays of sunshine on the horizon, though and Mr Dolan is confident that they will still manage to break even before their annual accounts close in a few weeks time.
Since June 30, two major fundraisers have taken place and the profit from these will exceed €100,000 – the board themselves ran a gala dinner to honour Offaly's seven All-Ireland Senior Football and Hurling Championship winning captains with tables costing €1,500. Chairman Michael Duignan thanked all who supported this, stressing that its main focus was to honour the seven captains (Willie Bryan, Tony McTague, Padraig Horan, Richie Connor, Pat Fleury, Martin Hanamy and Hubert Rigney).
That will clear over €60,000 while the Offaly Association in Dublin raised over €30,000 from a golf classic in Naas on the same day. Mr Duignan thanked them for their good work.
The board's main source of income will also kick in over the next few weeks with considerable revenue certain to be generated from the concluding stages of the football and hurling championships.
There will also be money from sponsors and other sources coming in and while it will be tight, Mr Dolan had good news when he revealed that they have projected that they will break even. The big reason for their expenditure going so far above budget has been extra money spent on county teams – Offaly won the All-Ireland U-20 Hurling Championship and Joe McDonagh senior hurling Cup in 2024.
They could even emerge with a small profit and the officers will be anxious to achieve that as Michael Duignan, secretary Colm Cummins and Dervill Dolan are all standing down at Convention in December.