GAA director-general Paraic Duffy said that Dublin's huge population had to be taken into account when allocating funds. Photo: Paul Mohan / SPORTSFILE

Dublin received almost €1.5m directly from Central Council for games development last year, which is only €400,000 less than the rest of the counties combined.

However, the other 31 counties receive support from their provincial councils for funding coaches and other promotional activities.

Effectively, Dublin are treated as a province for games development purposes. The coaches are employed directly by the Dublin County Board, whereas coaches in the rest of the country are paid by the provincial councils.

The four provincial councils were allowed a total of €4.8m for games development last year from an overall pay-out of €8.6m.

The most striking aspect of the payments carried in the GAA's annual accounts is the differential between Dublin and the rest of the country.

Cork were second highest behind Dublin, having received €69,000. Kilkenny received €54,600, while Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford each got €53,800.

Those figures relate to Central Council funding only, and all counties would have also received payments from their respective provincial councils.

GAA director-general Paraic Duffy said that Dublin's huge population had to be taken into account when allocating funds.

"We can't judge things purely in terms of inter-county success or otherwise. We have to also think of general participation and the take-up for our games.

"The investment in Dublin has been very successful is getting youngsters involved in the GAA. The biggest challenge for us is in urban areas, and Dublin is by far the largest in that regard," he said.

There have been mutterings of discontent from various counties in recent times over what they perceive to be an over-emphasis on Dublin when it comes to allocating funds for games development.

Duffy said that Central Council were conscious of the need to get the balance right between the needs of all counties.

"We need to look at things overall and that's what we'll be doing as we go along" he said.

Irish Independent