Galway GAA referees are in the dark over expenses

Date Published: 05-Apr-2012

WHILE the subject of payment to managers dominated the first quarter of the GAA calendar, another controversy that gathered as much momentum in this time – particularly at local level – was the issue of reimbursing referees for services rendered.

There was outcry among local referees when the GAA, upon the instruction of the Revenue Commissioners, informed the men in black that instead of receiving their set expense per game – on average €40 in 2011 – they could only claim a meal allowance of €13.71 and 50c a mile.

Consequently, for any referee officiating at a local club game, the amount he would get would fall well short of the agreed sum he received last year. In many respects, referees – too often, much maligned – felt it devalued the important contribution they made to Gaelic games, sport and the local community. And rightly so.

No doubt, referees in counties like Longford, Tipperary and Wexford were of a similar opinion – some threatened strike action, others took strike action – while the consequences of the referees’ ire was equally felt among the county boards, which, to be honest, could have done without having to deal with such a contentious topic.

For Galway’s part, referees adopted a level-headed approach to the crisis, ably led by local Referees Co-ordinator Michael Nee. The Mountbellew man outlined that, following a meeting at Croke Park last Thursday, every administration committee within the Association has been instructed to continue to pay referees their 2011 rate. That is until negotiations between the GAA and the Revenue Commissioners have been concluded.

“It seems the Revenue has agreed the €13.71 plus 50c a mile plus expenses to collect umpires,” outlines Nee. “They have agreed on that one, but that still entails filling up expenses forms.

“Obviously, the GAA would prefer it to go back to what it was. I don’t know if you would call it a fee or expenses, but the GAA want that. Negotiations are still ongoing but, obviously, the GAA are pressing the side that the referees provide a social and community service and they are hoping – but it is not settled – that there may be a situation that the fee will be accepted by the Revenue, untaxed. In other words, as it was.”

No doubt, the expenses relating to collecting umpires – which would, one suspects, make up the shortfall in the, say, €40 payment – is a wholly grey area and it would seem to constitute what many would term ‘a GAA solution’.

In any event, this new payment proposal – meal allowance and mileage – would not require referees to produce receipts and Nee noted that this solution “would, at least, be the worst scenario, but, again, it will also entail filling up expenses forms”.

Referees in Galway in 2011 received €40 per game in both adult hurling and football while juvenile referees received €35 in football and €25 hurling in hurling, which, Nee admits, was “a bit of an anomaly”. Inter-county referees receive 50c mileage allowance and a mean allowance worth up to €40.

Under Revenue guidelines, though, these amounts should be disclosed by referees – most specifically by club referees – to the Commissioners and it is the regularisation of these payments that the Revenue now seeks to impose.

However, there are other implications and, consequently, this has drawn the newly formed Gaelic Match Officials Association – originally set up because referees were unhappy with the meagre punishments being handed out by boards to players who had been sent off or committed some other indiscretion – into the debate.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.