Scheme fails in Dail debate

GAA: An Opposition attempt to provide tax credits for high-achieving amateur sportspersons was rejected by the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, during the final stage debate on the Finance Bill last night.

The Minister said the proposed tax credit of €2,000 would be used against the person's non-sport income, since being amateurs they did not have income arising directly from the sport itself.

"This proposal for a tax credit for elite amateur sportspersons has been promoted by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), whose members are not paid in respect of their direct participation in Gaelic games," he added. "In effect, it means taxpayers should subsidise certain amateur sportspersons when their own organisations are unwilling to do so. That is the nub of the matter."

Representatives of GPA had briefed deputies on the issue before yesterday's Dáil debate, and the proposal received strong support from Opposition speakers.

The Fine Gael spokesman on sport, Jimmy Deenihan, a former senior Kerry footballer and All-Ireland-winning captain, said the motivation behind it came from the special concession given by the Minister in 2002 to professional athletes. "Elite amateur athletes were ignored, which was unfair."

He said the proposal also included those involved in boxing, sailing, canoeing and a range of other sports, with an estimated cost to the Exchequer of €12 million.

"There are 6,000 athletes on the drug-testing system operated by the Irish Sports Council, which means the athletes who would benefit were ring-fenced."

McCreevy said the Government had made substantial sums available to the GAA at national and local level to develop facilities which provided the appropriate arenas in which those great national games were played.

"The GAA has also been exempt from income tax for the past 75 years, since 1928. That special relief should not be overlooked by those seeking even more favourable regimes."

In the past two years, he added, the organisation had been allocated no less than €68 million in Exchequer funding, including €1.5 million a year of current funding for the governing body. "The record shows that no government has been as generous to Irish sport as this current administration."