WEXFORD G.A.A. finances dominated the headlines last week, not surprisingly, but nevertheless all for the wrong reasons.

There's a lot to be said for the manner in which Wexford G.A.A. ran their affairs as right now the lack of transparency has come back to haunt the county. While we should be grateful that it's all out in the open, it certainly makes for unpleasant reading, leaving the officer board with a demanding task ahead of them.

At the special County Board meeting when the financial crisis was put in front of loyal G.A.A. people, they were stunned and shocked at what was facing them. The road to recovery will be long and hard, and many people will be hurt, as many big decisions will have to be made to remove the roadblock that is now facing the Association in the county.

To read and hear warning signals over the previous twelve months is one thing, but when the details are presented in black and white, there is no road for turning. Perhaps the County Board members could start by saying that they did not heed the warnings, ask the difficult questions, instead allowing matters to fester. It was like a rolling stone gathering moss with no one to shout 'halt'.

Wexford G.A.A. must now look at the next step and set in train a sequence of plans that will be presented to County Board at each monthly meeting. Had monthly financial reports been documented and presented to County Board, this is a situation that would not have been allowed continue.

Instead the County Board went from Convention to Convention without a single discussion on finance. That's the alarming statistic which now has contributed to the mess which the G.A.A. in the county faces.

They should have realised the difficulties that would pose but as it turned out this was an Association in the county preaching one rule and practicing another. Having had a chance to reflect on the county's financial situation, there was a compelling case that the issue should have been addressed much earlier, particularly as the 2009 financial report to county Convention highlighted the loss on the Glenbrien land transaction.

So the warnings appeared well in advance but were either not seen or were just pushed to one side. Christmas came and it was something like a Santa delivery, as suddenly Glenbrien re-emerged to the forefront. Under the new regime, Wexford's finances were laid bare with the picture painting a startling figure. The county is in a financial crisis of major proportions.

When it came it took people by surprise. But this has been flagged for some time and there was never a satisfactory explanation as to how the county could finance the Ferns centre of excellence, while still having a huge outlay on Wexford Park to meet, coupled with the Glenbrien land re-sale loss and the day-to-day running of the County Board.

Ultimately it has led to a crisis situation. There are still many questions to be answered, and given that the Chairman believes in governance and transparency, the hard questions should be asked at County Board meetings over the coming months.

The loyal G.A.A. supporters of the Model county deserve answers as they try to come to terms with the shocking details in this paper last week.

PAYMENT TO MANAGERS

It's heartening to see the the majority of counties are opposed to Croke Park's suggestions on the payments to managers.

Last week Wexford was dominated by its own financial crisis, so it's not surprising they are totally opposed to the payment of managers.

The doomsday scenario is that the end is nigh for the volunteer aspect of the Association if this is to filter through what is an amateur organisation.

The document presented by Pádraig Duffy led to a hastily-arranged meeting with County Board officers in Croke Park on Saturday last. The outcome saw counties opposed to payments for managers.

Now the document has been returned to County Board for discussion before February's end. I doubt if it will get much discussion in the Model county given our financial crisis without a paid manager.

- email: brendan.furlong@peoplenews.ie