NEW London GAA County Board Chairperson John Lacey has highlighted unfulfilled fixtures and unnecessary expenditure as his key challenges upon his return to the role.
The Granuaile clubman has taken over the role with immediate effect, but his proposition to keep his predecessor Noel O’Sullivan on the county board was politely declined.
Lacey offered O’Sullivan the opportunity to continue working with the Development Committee, but the Kerry native showed no desire prolong his involvement.
The position of Assistant Treasurer (Chairperson of Finance) remains open on the County Board, but Lacey will waste no time in pursuing other areas of improvement.
He said: “I would like to envisage quite a few changes and, if you look at the secretary’s report and the percentage of games that weren’t played when they were fixed, it’s a serious matter.
“Fixtures will be played, I can assure you. We’ll go as per rule.
“Finance is more serious than we think. We have to curb our expenditure or we will be back to where we started when I took over, when we couldn’t even afford to write a cheque here. Now look at the situation.”
The straight-talking Lacey openly admitted a lack of harmony on the board, an issue he hopes to rectify, while he hasn’t given up hope of persuading O’Sullivan to maintain an active role.
“This board is certainly not united by any means,” he said, drawing a chuckle from the club delegates. “I know it’s my job to try and re-unite us, and I will endeavor to do so.
“The people who didn’t vote for me – I will treat them the exact same as the people who did.
“I would like to invite Noel to remain on the Development Committee,” he added. “I’ve got no intention of doing anything or changing anything on that committee.
“They seem to be doing a good job. They had a big hiccup, but it looks to be back on track and I’m certainly not going to interfere with that. So I would like Noel to stay on board along with that.”
