Jerry Kiernan appeared on Newstalk Breakfast to talk about news that the GAA is getting €600,000 in government funding towards the redevelopment of the London GAA grounds in Ruislip.
Kiernan said the GAA should not get any tax payers' money as they are the richest association in Ireland and "they get everything." He also accused the GAA of having nerve in lobbying for the funds, if they did actually lobby, or if the money was put forward solely by the government then this was simply "stroke politics."
The former Olympian believed the money could be better used in other sports as the GAA needs the money less and that sports with an international dimension deserved the money more.
Apart from him believing that the association could do without the funding, this was the bones of his argument:
It's very diffucult to be a top international sports person without help along the way. It's very, very difficult. The GAA is largely a local association, it's a local organisation. The standards to play it, there's not an awful lot required. If you wish to run an Olympic Games and I'll just give you an example. If you wish to run the 1500m in the next Olympic Games, you have to be able to run the equivalent of a 3.52 mile. That's the standard which is required at international level. I'm sure it's the same in swimming, I'm sure it's the same in rowing and everything else. There are standards applied for getting money for international sport. There is no standard applied to GAA getting money except their popularity.
He also claimed:
You have as many people running races in Ireland over the weekend as you have people playing Gaelic football games.
When asked if he was a fan of Gaelic games, Kiernan replied "not at all" and also said "I don't actually think it's a particularly skillful game."
The full audio is below.
