On March 4 th we are away to Down. The Chairman of the Munster Council, Sean Kelly presented twenty-three Kerry clubs, including Colaiste na Sceilige, Cahersiveen with a combined total of 106,000 in field development grants at a function organized by the Administration and Development Committee of Kerry County Board in the River Island Hotel, Castleisland on Monday night last. This represents the combined expenditure by the clubs of 1.2 million last year. Fitzgerald Stadium received a grant of 90,000 and also their field rent of 63,000 for hosting Munster Council games. A grant of 100,000 will be paid towards the development in Austin Stack Park including the new media building, floodlighting and the renovation of the County Board Office.
Sanding grants are also due to nine clubs in the county.
The clubs selected for the sanding grants are located in strategic areas of the county where there is the likelihood of they being asked to host a large number of games as neutral venues. These clubs are selected on the basis of making their fields available for schools games and also making them available to the County Board as neutral venues. Sean Kelly in his address outlined the importance he placed on increasing the development grants to clubs during his term as Chairman of the Council. He also referred to the investment made by the Munster Council towards games promotion, Gaeltacht Scholarships and hurling and football development grants. The Council also invested in the purchase of a computer for each of the six county board offices in the province.