Galway GAA set national records this year by spending €1,842,230 on inter county teams, the highest figure ever audited by any county.
The news of this major spending comes at the same time as clubs express their outrage over the revelation of severe financial mismanagement and abuse by Galway GAA.
However this year also marked a record breaking intake for Galway as revenue passed €5 million.
The Irish Independent reports that this is greater than previous records like the €1.75 million spent by Dublin in 2011 when they were chasing five All-Ireland titles, and the same by Cork in 2017.
That spending came amid an ambitious year for Galway as the county attempted to double down on last year’s minor and senior hurlers took home the All-Ireland.
2018 was still a massive success as the minor team won the All-Ireland and the Seniors ended a nine match winning streak, defeated by Limerick in the final.
In football the seniors won the Connacht title and made it to the semi-finals against Dublin while the minor team made it to the All-Ireland final.
These successes paved the way for a major boost in revenue as the Irish Independent reports that Galway earned nearly €1.2 million more income in 2018 than last year.
Galway appointed a new treasurer last year, Mike Burke, one of whose first acts was to order an internal report on the county’s finances.
The findings of that led to Croke Park commissioning an independent audit by Mazars, which was presented to the annual convention last night.
Some of the most egregious breaches of financial management it disclosed were €45,000 worth of personal expenses racked up on the Galway GAA credit card.
Mr Burke condemned this “serious abuse” of Galway GAA monies and said that from now on it would be capped at €10,000.
He also criticised top-level figures who had previously said there was “mismanagement”, when the reality was far worse according to him.
Another serious issue that came up was €440,000 in ticket debt that the county racked up with Croke Park from 2016, which wasn’t paid until well over a year later.
Mr Burke said that some people within Galway GAA had put “every barrier and obstacle they could find” in his way to stop him and other from digging.
