Tyrone GAA calls for increase in funding for rural counties

Tyrone GAA has called for an increase in funding for rural counties, claiming urban areas are been unfairly prioritised.
A major document released tonight (Thurs) declared that the Association’s heartland lies in rural Ireland, and demanded a change in funding policy at GAA Headquarters.
The county’s Five Year Plan, launched at Garvaghey, criticises the prioritising of ‘metropolitan Ireland’ in the distribution of GAA funding.
Dublin is the major benefactor, followed by Cork, while a £1m award was made to Belfast GAA last week.
“The vast bulk of public investment and infrastructure is already allocated to metropolitan Ireland so the GAA needs to reverse its strategy here, work to redress chronic imbalances and re-focus on its GAA heartlands,” says the Red Hand county’s latest five-year Strategic Plan, ‘Ag Ardú Níos Airde Arís na Laimhe Deirge – Raising the Red Hand Even Higher’.
“Tyrone, with others, is increasingly concerned at the prioritizing of ‘metropolitan Ireland’ for GAA investment, something which can happen only at a cost to ‘nonmetropolitan Ireland’.
“Rural Ireland (which includes Tyrone’s towns) has always been and remains the GAA’s key driver and already suffers gravely from service withdrawal, lack of opportunities, growing planning controls and debilitating emigration.”