Is there no end to the perverse obsession of this government with so-called ‘elite’ and ‘prestige’ sporting proposals, enquires An Fear Rua …

What do they think will happen? That Anna Kournikova herself will turn up on the doorsteps of Drumcondra with Oul SuperDub Himself, Bertie, canvassing votes on behalf of ‘Deh Feeenya Fawl’ candidates … shaking babies and kissing hands … and, afterwards, repairing to Kennedy’s or Fagan’s for few large bottles a’ Bass with Bertie and De Lads? Or, in a last minute move to stymie the electoral ambitions of The Limerick Schoolteacher Himself, Mick Noonan, that the likes of Roy Keane or Niall Quinn would agree to be drafted in by Head Office as the last candidate on the FF ticket in East Limerick? Of course, if either of those gentlemen were tempted in that direction , one phone call to Eamon Cregan should set them right on that one!

First, we had the preposterous suggestion of squandering a billion of the taxpayers’ hard-earned Euro on an 80,000 seater stadium and other facilities in Abbotstown, County Dublin – the so-called ‘Bertie Bowl' – at a time when hundreds of GAA clubs around the country still lack proper dressing rooms even? Then, having conned the FAI into abandoning Eircom Park, and throwing a €75 million bribe towards the GAA to prise open access to Croke Park (which – by a single delegate vote – failed to do the business for Bertie!) up came the idea of combining with Scotland in a bid to host the 2008 European Cup.

Ah, but never let it be said, Kildare’s Number One Football Fan Himself, Charlie McCreevy, wasn’t going to let Bertie have it all his own in the matter of madcap sports-related ideas. Ah, no. Nothing would do Charlie in the 2002 Finance Bill than to give a tax refund to professional sports people equivalent to forty per cent of their earnings in their ten best years, when they retire. Charlie said the measure would be a reward to sports people for 'the prestige they bring to Ireland'. This language,we have to say, is all too reminiscent of the bad old days of sports competition in the Soviet Bloc countries, when starving workers and peasants were expected to feel happy and cheer as they watched their 'heroes' amassing mounds of ill-gotten medals at the Olympics. And how many countless lives of young women were destroyed in Communist Rumania or the German 'Democratic' Republic by unscrupulous 'coaches' filling them full of male hormones in pursuit of the same chimera of international sporting 'prestige'?

The arguments against this hare-brained idea are endless. But, sure, McCreevy was never a man to listen to a good argument once he has his mind made up. The arguments range from the mere technical in Revenue law, to the ideological and the philosophical. Usually exemptions of one kind or another in Revenue law simply end up as loopholes to avoid tax that should otherwise be paid. For example, some years ago manufacturing industry paid Corporation Profits Tax at 10%, compared with 35% for other businesses. Then a company, whose main business activity was importing bananas and ripening them in big warehouses, took a High Court case and – successfully – claimed that ripening bananas was ‘manufacturing’ and so qualified them for the lower tax rate.

Again, for some spurious reason or other linked to 'job creation', bloodstock breeding has been ‘zero rated’ for tax for many years. This provision has been used by a small number of wealthy individuals to shield their income from tax. The real ‘golden circle’ that has dominated Irish life – is the owners’ and trainers’ circle in the Curragh racecourse!

But there are more important arguments and these relate to the State handing back large sums of money to already wealthy elite athletes at a time when the same outfit is pleading they don’t have enough money to pay nurses, teachers and health care workers! The only people who will benefit from McCreevy’s scheme is a handful of jockeys, rugby players and golfers, most of them probably pals of Charlie from the old days in Kildare.

And there are very strong GAA arguments against as well. Even a first year economics student could tell the Minister that the effect of this proposal will be to drain away inter-county GAA players into rugby, soccer and golf. Even Charlie McCreevy cannot – King Canute-like – vainly hold up his hand to stem the tide of the fundamental laws of economics. Why play top-level GAA for nothing – or next to nothing – when you can get paid to play soccer, rugby or golf AND get forty per cent of it back when you retire? At a time when the GAA is gingerly trying to pick a way through the minefield of professionalism or semi-professionalism, the Minister’s proposal is, to say the least insensitive. Is this the government’s pay back for the delegates’ refusal to open up Croke Park to other sports last year? Some of AFR's legal friends - and God forgive him! - he has a few tell him there's a good chance the proposal may be unconsitutional, on the basis that it discriminates unfairly against GAA players. Now, there's wan for ya!

There is a simple amendment to this daft proposal that would render it safe – indeed very acceptable – from a GAA point of view. That is, to exempt all current income from sports activities from Income Tax – not only wages (as proposed) but also earnings from sponsorships and expenses. That would immediately level the tax playing field between the GAA and other sports and neutralise any financial incentive to players to switch sports. Funny enough, this is exactly in line with a proposal made by An Fear Rua, as far back as September 2000, (see Related Topics below: 'I'll See Your Fifty... And I'll Raise You Two-Fifty!), when we proposed that an exemption similar to Charvet J Haughey’s ‘Artists’ Exemption’ should be extended to all sports people, not just the so-called elite.

So Charlie, next time you ‘lift’ an idea from your old pal, AFR, do try to get it right first time round?

'Vote On It!' Poll:
What Do You Think of Charlie McCreevy"s Proposal to Give Elite Sports People a Big Tax Refund at the End of Their Careers?

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