LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES of the Labour Party were “taken aback” last week when it emerged that GAA County Board chairman Diarmuid Devereux had publicly thanked Chief Whip Minister Paul Kehoe for his assistance in securing grant funding for the ‘Centre of Excellence’ project during last month’s meeting of the board.
Mr Devereux expressed his gratitude to the Fine Gael minister, but did not mention Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin’s role in the initiative.
The grants issued through the Sports Capital scheme are sanctioned by Minister Howlin’s office.
Constituency assistant to Minister Howlin county councillor George Lawlor told this newspaper that he was “astonished” by the remarks.
“It’s fair to credit Paul Kehoe with working in the background, but it’s quite obvious that he was not the only one,” said Cllr Lawlor.
When contacted by this newspaper, Mr Devereux explained that it had been an “oversight” on his part and that he was “very aware of the role Brendan Howlin played”.
“It was probably as much the way that it came out. We received that funding because of the work of both ministers. The reason that I mentioned Paul was because he had attended a committee meeting to discuss it,” said the chairman.
Mr Devereux continued: “Not mentioning the Labour Party was an oversight on my part.”
According to Mr Devereux, on a previous occasion when the County Board had applied for funding to get the project off the ground, it was turned down.
At that point GAA officials met with both ministers to seek their assistance in reapplying a second time.
Following this initial consultation, Minister Paul Kehoe met with the board on two subsequent two occasions to discuss the matter further.
“That is probably why Paul Kehoe was in my mind, but I am very aware of the amount of assistance we have received from Minister Howlin and Cllr George Lawlor as well,” he said.