Mr. Tom Ryan:

I thank the committee for inviting me to speak this morning. I work with the GAA and I am joined by my colleague, Ms Ciara Clarke. I do not come to the committee with solutions to the difficulties it faces and I do not have specific proposals. However, I will offer some context and background on how the GAA organises its insurance affairs. What focuses our minds in this context is the fact that the single biggest bill a GAA club faces every year is its insurance bill.

The GAA provides a range of insurance cover for its units and members. Cover is a combination of externally procured insurance policies and self-funded insurance. It applies within the Twenty-six Counties and internationally, and is compulsory. We negotiate and buy whatever insurance we require centrally and then recharge the costs to the units. We take that approach because in the past we found that without central co-ordination, we were not in a position to guarantee that each unit would obtain insurance, in the first instance, or that, where insurance was provided, that it was adequate. For this reason, we manage the programme centrally.

The GAA has two separate subsidiary entities, one governing insurance and the other governing the injury fund. They are accounted for and audited separately, and each of the entities discharges the insurance premiums and recharges the costs of those premiums back to the units. They meet these costs by recharging premiums and by levying a predefined percentage of gate receipts into those funds. Typically, when one pays €20 or €30 to go to a game - and hopefully many members of the committee will be at matches over the summer - some 5% of the gate receipt goes into our insurance fund and 6% goes into a fund specifically for injured players. We are in the fortunate position of having two people working on insurance affairs for us, one of whom is Ms Clarke. We also have a national insurance and risk committee which is chaired by Mr. Sheamus Howlin. Some members of the committee may know Mr. Howling, who was unable to join us today and sends his apologies.

We provide three main strands of insurance and challenges apply to all three. The first is property insurance. GAA property is defined as property held in trust under the rules of the association. By definition, once a club has vested its facilities in the GAA, it will be covered in respect of property under the insurance programme we provide. The scale of the programme means that our policy does not name every individual ground. It names the four or five big grounds we are all familiar with, but thereafter it kicks in automatically for every other ground.

We go to tender annually, either in October or November. We go to the market seeking insurance to cover our properties. As previous speakers noted and others will confirm, this is not an easy process. However, we have been able to secure appropriate cover in the past and we are grateful for that. The cover applies to every ground in the country, which in turn causes issues for us. The fund pays its insurance premiums to the insurance providers. It may be one provider or a portfolio of providers. Over the course of the year, central council will recharge to each county an insurance premium based on its size, relative scale and claims history over the preceding five years. The claims are managed by the insurance company and a loss adjuster under the direction of the GAA insurance staff. This type of insurance is almost self-insurance. The first and very substantial portion of annual claims cost is borne by the GAA fund and it is only when the claims cost goes above a particular threshold that the insurance cover kicks in. It is an attempt to manage the insurance premium costs by manipulating and managing that threshold and the individual excesses that apply to each club when it makes a claim.

Liability insurance is perhaps our biggest challenge in terms of insurance. We provide cover centrally and globally for all of our clubs, but the key point we reiterate to clubs all the time is that the cover provides protection in the realm of playing and promoting hurling and football for the most part. That is what the GAA is about at a community level. All the other activities in which the GAA engages are either covered by permission or not covered. Clubs can apply to us for insurance for fundraising events, club days and events and we consider whether we are able to provide cover. There are some items for which we cannot and do not provide cover. For example, and contrary to what people may believe having seen them in various clubs around the country, we do not insure bouncy castles. These are a particular problem and a particular form of risk and we cannot and do not offer cover to people who place bouncy castles in clubs. Where a club extends the use of its facilities to third parties, we always ask that the organisations in question in turn provide cover to us, show evidence of cover or offer some kind of an indemnity to protect the club.

Liability cover applies in exactly the same way as property insurance. The bills are charged centrally. Central council, as an entity, contributes a lump sum to that fund and collects a levy from the gate receipts and we in turn levy the counties and the clubs.

The third strand I will discuss is not technically insurance, although it is referred to colloquially as such by our members and the organisation. It is the injury fund, which we provide on a self-funded basis for players, referees, coaches and team mentors who might unfortunately suffer an injury during the course of the playing year. The fund differs significantly from the liability and property programmes I explained earlier in that it is entirely self-funded. We collect a premium or levy from each club based on the number of teams it fields in each competition over the course of the year. We also hive off a small portion from every gate receipt of every game through the course of the year. This income goes into the injury fund. If a person is unfortunate enough to suffer an injury and it is verified by a referee or club official a claim will be submitted to us and benefits are paid out on a pre-ordained scale.

The costs must be vouched. We provide a very modest level of compensation for loss of wages and such things. We are proud of that scheme and we guard it jealously. We think it is core to the benefits that we are able to offer our members. The operation of the scheme on a day-to-day basis is run by an outsourced service provider.

If it is in order, I might offer a number of metrics, which were not included in the material provided to the secretariat, such as recent trends and specific challenges under the headings I have mentioned.

In regard to our property insurance in the course of the past five years, from 2012 to 2017, we have had a cumulative total of 340 property insurance claims at a total cost to the association of €8.5 million. By and large those claims relate to storm damage. It is an odd facet of the organisation. We are very proud of the scope and reach we have but by definition, that means we have a pitch in every parish and in every corner of the country. Any time there is an adverse weather event, one can be sure that a GAA pitch somewhere will suffer. Related to that, members will have ball nets and they signify that there is a GAA pitch somewhere. They are a constant source of worry and claim because they are difficult to maintain and again in high winds, they are the first casualty.

In terms of liability insurance, our claims reserves total €12 million. Our annual premiums have doubled during the course of the past five years but the disheartening thing about the claims experience here is that of the €12 million reserve, some €7 million of those claims relate to things we do not consider to be at the core of what we do. They are not related to hurling and football but to other events that took place in clubs, be they fundraising or social events and so on.

As for the injury fund, we manage about 6,000 claims for players over the course of the years. That is typical and it has been a fairly stable figure during the past five years that approximately 6,000 people will suffer an injury or approximately 6,000 injuries will be incurred. The cumulative cost to the association during that five-year period was about €45 million, of which €30 million is funded by team subscriptions and by clubs and the remaining €15 million is funded by the central governing body. I hope that gives members the scale and context of what is an issue for every GAA club around the country, no matter how big or small in scale.

The challenges we face fall into three categories. I will not labour this point because it will arise in the context of the discussions. The challenges are the increased volume of claims, the increased cost of claims and some difficulties we perceive as an outside party with the legal process and how that operates. We also would be the first to admit there are challenges in the insurance realm for ourselves, in terms of how we conduct our own business. We are trying to manage things and to improve all the time. I am happy to deal with any questions from members.