The GAA has made special payments to a number of counties based on financial need. The criteria applied were based on the county's accounts for 2004, the size of the county's population base and its capacity to generate revenue itself.

Twelve counties received €10,000 each from a decision of Central Council last month. Although not disclosed at the time the counties involved were: Carlow, Down, Laois, Leitrim, London, Longford, Louth, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath.

The individual sum involved is modest but cumulatively €120,000 is a sizeable grant. Westmeath county secretary Paddy Collins says that such subventions are important for counties.

"Well I went quickly to the bank with the cheque. It was very welcome." Westmeath are typical of counties with a small base but relatively successful county teams. As has recently been highlighted, the preparation of county panels is the single biggest cost facing many county boards. Even success on the field doesn't guarantee a return in the face of this expenditure.

For the year in question Westmeath spent €545,000 on their teams and although the footballers won a first Leinster title, no new revenue sources arose and county championship earnings didn't cover half of that cost.

"In 2004 we raised just €75,000 in gate money from our county hurling championships, which is about what major counties would take in for their final alone. Football receipts were €134,000. We wouldn't be able to run ourselves without the payout from the qualifiers and other grants. We'd be up a gum tree without those payments."

The All-Ireland football and hurling qualifiers have generated welcome funds for disbursement among the competing counties since their inception in 2001 and '02. In 2004 Westmeath received €35,000 from this fund.

There is some concern that the dividend for 2005 has been affected by the collapse of attendances at the hurling qualifiers. The group format introduced last year didn't pull big crowds and the new All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals generated funds for Central Council rather than the qualifier pool. Yet the costs of preparing the footballers increased to €595,000.

"It's hard to see where we can improve without better gate receipts," according to Collins. "The upsurge in the teams' success hasn't had any effect in that respect. There are certainly more people coming to intercounty matches but we're not seeing a knock-on impact at county championships. It's like soccer where so many follow the international team but don't attend National League games.

"We keep a pretty tight eye on things but we don't like to be accused of skimping on the county teams. There's a pretty limited earning capacity and without our support groups we wouldn't be able to afford the level of preparation our teams have."

Meanwhile, Dublin selector Paul Clarke has been called before next week's meeting of the Leinster Council GAC in relation to an incident during the recent O'Byrne Cup match against Wexford whose defender Colm Morris claimed that he had been struck by a Dublin mentor.

Although the referee's attention was drawn to the incident he took no further action than to caution the Dublin bench about encroaching on the field. There was a brief reference to the incident in the referee's report but it was believed to be insufficient to warrant an investigation.

Nonetheless Michael Reynolds of the Leinster Council confirmed that the matter had been discussed on Wednesday night and that the decision had been taken to summon Clarke.