The issue of the appropriate type and level of financial rewards for players – particularly elite county players – hasn’t gone away you know, writes An Fear Rua...

Indeed, it is very much on the agenda at the moment, as the GAA, GPA and government appear to be inching nervously towards some kind of long term solution.

It's a long way from Mick O'Dwyer's hare brained scheme to pay every player taking part in an All Ireland final €10,000 each or former President Seán Kelly's support of a special tax credit for players.

Given the often rancorous public relationship between the GPA and GAA officialdom, the old Kelly / O'Dwyer alliance might have been seen as an important step forward towards the satisfactory resolution of the issue. That would be incorrect, however. An alliance in pursuit of the wrong aim is worse than no alliance at all. And, to ensure the proper and fair reward for our players, an income tax allowance or tax credit is not the correct solution.

Tax-related adjustments fall at the first very obvious hurdle. A tax free allowance against general income that is confined to one category of taxpayer, by virtue merely of being a sports player, might well be unconstitutional. It would also be unconstitutional to attempt to confine the allowance to GAA players, thus negativing much of the perceived advantage to our players. Making the allowance apply specifically to income from sport, or even sports-related activities such as sponsorship, will not work either since the GAA is nominally amateur and only a tiny handful of players get any benefit from sponsorship money.

There are other serious objections to this course as well. For example, tax breaks legislated by the Oireachtas could only benefit people deemed to be resident in the State for tax purposes. At a stroke of a Presidential pen in the Áras, then, a partitionist, discriminatory treatment of players would be introduced into the heart of the GAA. Unless, of course, Dessie and Seán believe that the British authorities in the North could be persuaded to simultaneously enact an exactly similar piece of legislation. Given that this would have to take its place in a long legislative queue in Westminster perhaps encountering Unionist opposition along the way, and the imminence of a British general election, such a prospect seems extremely unlikely. It also seems to me that any such tax concessions would be extremely difficult to administer fairly as between club and county players, again cutting deeply into one of the most cherished roots of ‘Dis Great Association of Ours’.

All in all, then, in pursuing this particular chimera, Seán and Dessie are jointly barking up the wrong monkey puzzle tree.

In the 2002 Finance Act, the then Minister for Finance, that well known Kildare football supporter, Mr Charlie McCreevy, made provision for Irish professional sports people to claim back 40 per cent of income tax paid over their highest 10-year period of career earnings. However, by definition, this is of no use to amateurs such as inter-county GAA players. At the time, Mr McCreevy called for some ‘lateral thinking" on the tax issue. Although his interests now range across the broader European stage, and the footballing fates of the likes of Coill Dubh and Kilcock are probably far from his mind, let me take up his invitation.

First of all, I commend the GPA for beginning this year’s lobbying campaign with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism rather than going head-to-head with the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners, as they did to such poor effect in 2002. To take on the Department of Finance effectively, you need to have allies within the government system and, most especially, the support of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

Even more importantly, the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism already houses a financial reward and recognition scheme that – with just a few tweaks here and there – could be ideally adapted to the needs of GAA players. It is called Aosdána and it is a financial support system for artists, poets, writers, composers and musicians operated by the Arts Council. We do not need to go all the details here, but suffice to say that Aosdána pays a tax-free lump sum of almost €13,000 a year to two hundred leading artists. This cnuas, as it is called, is renewed every five years so it is not necessarily a sinecure for life. The scheme is essentially self-regulated by the artists themselves, there is provision for more than one grade of membership and there are regular meetings of the members to discuss issues of common concern.

Who will argue that the artistry of the likes of a DJ Carey or a Séamus Moynihan over a series of seventy minute games, and the months of preparation they put in, is any less a contribution to the gaiety of the nation than the poetry of, say, Seamus Heaney or the prose of John McGahern – both of whom are more than familiar with the ins and out of Gaelic games? Ironically, Heaney and McGahern each get a tax-free lump sum from the State while the likes of Carey and Moynihan go unrecognised.

Aosdána is based on the admirable ancient Celtic and Gaelic tradition of the support and honour that chieftains and tribes gave to bards and musicians so that they could concentrate on their art. The knights of the ancient Fianna were required to pass stringent tests in poetry and music before being admitted to membership, but were also required to be equally adept at games like chess and physical sports like hurling and hunting. In honouring only one side of this equation, our modern system of public recognition and reward is strangely lopsided.

The basic structure already exists with the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism to establish a sports recognition scheme. The role of the Sports Council is analogous to that of the Arts Council and so it could be used to set up and manage the implementation of the scheme. The scheme could be called Gradam, the Irish word for ‘Award’ and could appropriately adapt the rules and procedures of Aosdána. If only similar funding to the Arts scheme were made available, that would mean a fund of around €2.6 million. At the level of the GPA demand for a tax credit of €2,000, that pool of funding would provide an annual lump sum for every senior panellist in both hurling and football.

Obviously, because of the level of popular enjoyment of sport as compared to the arts, the level of funding for Gradam should be much higher than for Aosdána. The GPA and the GAA should concentrate their lobbying on getting the principle of a ‘lump sum’ scheme accepted by the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. Once the principle has been accepted at government level, the case can then be made for proper funding and for appropriate annual increases. Indeed, to increase the funding available, provision could be made to allow big companies and wealthy individuals to covenant donations to the Gradam fund and thus qualify for tax write-offs similar to those obtained for charitable donations.

The need to cater for other sports can be taken care of by agreeing a formula whereby the amount of Gradam funding allocated would be proportionate to the adult membership of each organisation and, say, attendance at major games. Furthermore, if sufficient funding is made available, the grant scheme could, without difficulty, be extended to include senior players at club level. This would ensure fairness and address legitimate concerns about ‘pay-for-pay’ driving a wedge between county panellists and their club-level colleagues. Similarly to Aosdána, Gradam would be open to the entire thirty-two counties (thus overcoming a major defect in the current GPA / GAA approach). Finally, since they already accept the Aosdána principle, there is no chance of a Revenue attempt to tax the Gradam lu