Players Information from executive

Dear Player/Coach,

On behalf of the executive committee of Millstreet GAA club we would like to thank you for your commitment to the club to date and wish you the best for the upcoming season. We are writing to remind you of a few important housekeeping issues we would like you to be aware of as we begin a new playing season.

1. Membership renewal.

It is time to renew your membership for the coming year. Membership rates are unchanged from last year and are outlined in the table below. It is necessary to pay membership each year to be eligible to play and to be covered for any injury sustained under the GAA injury benefit fund. Membership can be paid through your Foireann account or if you wish please feel free to contact any member of the executive who will be more than happy to assist you.

| Category of membership | Membership rate 2025
| Full adult player -working | € 75
| Full adult player -working plus Rebel’s Bounty ticket* (value €100) | € 130
| Full adult player – full time student/ part time worker | € 50
| Full adult player - full time student/ part time worker plus Rebel’s Bounty ticket* (value €100) | €120
| Coaches/trainers | €50
| Coaches/trainers plus Rebel’s Bounty ticket* (value €100) | €120

*There is a direct debit option available for Rebel’s Bounty with 10 monthly payments of €10. This can be purchased online through the County Board. If you have or do choose to purchase a Rebel’s Bounty in stage payments by direct debit, please contact Emma Hickey and we will then be organised for you to only pay the reduced membership balance as outlined above.

2. Rebel’s Bounty

You will see that we are offering a combined Rebel’s Bounty and reduced membership option again this year. Rebel’s Bounty is a significant fundraiser for the club each year. Run by the County Board, each club in the county has an allocation of tickets to sell after which all monies are returned to the club. Our allocation this year is 65 tickets; the County Board will keep the monies from the first 65 tickets sold for Millstreet GAA club and after that 100% of all tickets sold are returned directly back into the club. The prizes are significant with a top prize of €20,000 each month and a top prize of €100,000 in December. Please check out https://gaacork.ie/rebelsbounty/ for the full list of prizes.

3. GAA Injury Benefit Scheme

The GAA runs an injury benefit scheme which covers players for any injury sustained during a game or official training session. Attached at appendix 1 is an outline of the medical and dental cover available for your information.

We would ask you to please notify us of any injury sustained as soon as is practical after the event. All injuries need to be notified to Croke Park within 60 days. If it goes outside this timeframe the claim will not be covered. We will manage the claim for you, but we do need your assistance with supplying us with relevant documentation etc. relating to your claim. If you do sustain an injury please contact Siobhan Buckley, Club Injury Benefit Officer at your earliest convenience as will require both you and your attending Doctor to complete paperwork to begin the claims process.

4. Incident reporting

Liability insurance is in place to provide an indemnity in respect of damages the club is found legally liable to pay arising from (a) Accidental bodily injury to any person, (b) nuisance, (c) loss or damage to material property. Under the claims reporting conditions, in the event of an incident/ occurrence which may give rise to a claim, the club is required to give immediate notice of the incidence/ occurrence to insurers.

Should you as a coach or player become aware of any incident, e.g., slips, trips and falls by any person on club grounds, a car break-in during training etc, regardless of whether you think it is significant or not, please notify Gillian Linehan, Club Secretary at your earliest convenience. We will then complete an incident report form for our records and notify the insurers accordingly. It is always better to be safe than sorry so please always let us know of anything that you may feel is out of the ordinary!

5. Physiotherapy costs

The GAA injury benefit scheme does not cover physiotherapy (except post operatively). The club position on payment of physiotherapy* fees is as follows:

Full time working players: 30% of total costs incurred.

Students/ players that are working part time: 75% of total costs incurred.

*Please note the club will only pay costs associated with treatment by a Chartered Physiotherapist who is registered with CORU to a maximum of 6 session per injury. Where a member has private insurance, we would ask that players to make a claim through there in the first instance and revert to the club with the balance. The club will then pay the outstanding balance or the 30%/75% of the total cost.

6. Executive membership

The full executive membership and contact details are attached at appendix 2, for your information. Conor Twomey and Darragh Cashman are your player representatives on the executive committee. Please bring any observations, issues or concerns you have to the attention of Conor or Darragh’s or any member of the executive and they will bring it to the executive on your behalf. The executive is here to help and support you in any way we can, so please feel free to contact us if there is any situation with which you feel we can assist with, be it a playing or personal issue, we will always do our best for you.

Finally, on behalf of the entire Millstreet GAA executive, I would like to wish you all the best for the year, both on and off the pitch.

Yours faithfully,

Jerry Doody Gillian Linehan

Jerry Doody Gillian Linehan

Chairperson, Millstreet GAA Club Secretary, Millstreet GAA Club

Appendix 1

What is the GAA Injury Benefit Fund?

The mandatory benefit fund provides benefits to registered members playing the national games of Hurling, Gaelic Football, Handball and Rounders’ whose clubs are registered with the fund.

The GAA Injury Benefit Fund is a Self-funded benefit fund funded entirely from GAA funds with no outside involvement. In effect it is a benefit fund funded by members for the members. The Injury Fund is not an Insurance Scheme and is therefore, not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. As payments from the fund come directly from GAA funds, there is no Insurer involved with the fund. There is no legal obligation on the GAA to provide such a fund or for any of our units to pay for treatments, surgeries required. Risk is an inherent factor in sport, as in life. When members voluntarily take part in Club \ County activities particularly playing activities in contact sports, they accept the risks that such participation may bring. Legal representation is not required and therefore, there is strictly no legal expenses cover amongst the benefits provided. Should a player issue legal correspondence in respect of a claim within the Fund, the player will be solely responsible for issuing payment for the costs of such correspondence. Each player needs to ensure that they have adequate cover in place to meet their own individual needs and personal circumstances. The GAA Injury Benefit Fund is only in place to cover benefits which cannot be claimed elsewhere and is a benefit cover only.

The GAA Injury Benefit Fund does not seek to compensate fully for Injuries sustained but to supplement other Schemes such as Personal Accident, Income Protection, Private Health Insurance, Schools Insurance for example. The playing of Gaelic Football, Hurling, Handball and Rounders involves the risk of Injury, and it is each individual registered player’s responsibility to familiarise themselves with the terms and benefits of the GAA Injury Benefit Fund. The Injury Benefit Fund only provides cover for unrecoverable losses up to the limits specified.

In summary, the GAA Injury Benefit Fund is in place to cover benefits which cannot be claimed elsewhere. Therefore, if a claimant is seeking to claim benefit from the fund, they must exhaust all other avenues before making a claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund. Furthermore, the Injury Benefit Fund should not be used as a guarantee for the payment of expenses. Ultimately, the responsibility to ensure that adequate cover is in place lies with the individual member, commensurate with his \ her specific needs and members should not use the fund as their only recourse or be dependent on the fund to compensate them fully for any losses associated with the injury sustained.

Who is covered under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund?

The GAA Injury Benefit Fund applies to:

1.1 Registered Players as per the Official Guide who play on a team registered with the GAA Injury Benefit Fund who incur an accidental bodily injury* while playing Hurling, Gaelic Football, Handball or Rounders’ only, either in the course of an official competitive Fixture or an Official Sanctioned challenge match or in the course of an official supervised collective team training session.

1.2 Match officials’ i.e., referees, linesmen or umpires injured while officiating at an official competitive fixture of Hurling, Handball, Gaelic Football or Rounders as specified in 1.1 above.

1.3 Voluntary coaches, team managers, selectors and members of official team parties injured during games or training as specified in 1.1 above.

The GAA Injury Benefit Fund covers Adult* and Youth* members of the GAA.

For the purpose of the Benefit Fund, the following applies:

An Adult* is a registered and paid member of the GAA as per the Official Guide who is 18 years of age or over on the 1st of January of the calendar year.

A Youth* is a registered and paid member of the GAA as per the Official Guide who is under 18 years of age on the 1st of January of the calendar year.

Please note that the GAA Membership Year runs from January 1st – December 31st annually and it is a requirement as per the official guide that all members are registered. To be considered registered, playing members must be registered on the GAA Membership system Foireann. Should a GAA Injury Benefit claim be reported for a claimant who is not registered or who is registered on the membership system after the date of injury, the claim will be declined.

Benefits - Benefits \ Conditions may be altered from time to time at the discretion of CLG

1) Medical Benefit – Otherwise unrecoverable inpatient* and outpatient* medical expenses are covered up to a maximum of €5,200.00 (This benefit includes cover for MRI scans up to a limit of €300.00 per scan and post-operative physiotherapy \ treatments up to a limit of €320.00)

For the purposes of assessing claims under the GAA Injury Benefit fund, medical expenses* are defined as doctors’ fees, consultation fees, surgery fees, prescription charges, injection fees, MRI scans and post-operative treatments. The first €100.00 of each and every claim is excluded.

Where a claimant* has private medical insurance and makes a successful claim for benefit in that benefit is paid via their private medical insurance policy, the €100 excess on each and every claim will not apply on the claimant’s claim.

Please note that unrecoverable medical expenses will only be covered up to two years after the Injury date. For example, if the injury date is the 01/07/2023, unrecoverable medical expenses associated with the injury sustained on that date will only be covered up to the 30/06/2025.

Cover for unrecoverable medical expenses applies to treatment only within the Island of Ireland. There is no cover for pre-operative physiotherapy \ treatments (acupuncture, osteopath, massage therapy etc) or treatments of a pre-injury prevention \ post injury prevention nature.

The only physiotherapy \ treatments that maybe claimed are for treatments that are postoperative i.e. physiotherapy \ treatment that takes place after a surgical procedure. In the absence of surgery, there is no cover for physiotherapy \ associated treatments.

For the purposes of the fund, surgery* is defined as treatment administered by a surgeon by the act of incision on an anaesthetised patient (whether conscious or unconscious) to investigate and \ or treat a condition to help improve bodily function that has been damaged or injured because of GAA playing activity. This does not include treatments using a local anaesthetic for injections or manipulation used in treating dislocations. Pre-injury prevention \ Post injury prevention treatment costs are specifically excluded from cover.

If you have cover under the Public Health System \ National Health Service, you must avail of cover under the appropriate system before seeking to submit a claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund.

If you have private medical insurance e.g., VHI, Laya Health Care, Irish Life Health, BUPA, Schools Insurance etc. or cover under any Personal Accident policy, a claim must be made with your private medical \ personal accident provider for both inpatient* and outpatient medical expenses*. Therefore, you must submit all your original medical receipts to your private medical insurer \ personal accident provider. Once you submit your original medical receipts, your private third-party medical insurer will assess your claim and provide you with an inpatient* \ outpatient* statement of account* clearly stating the benefits that they have covered or not covered. A copy of this statement of account* must be submitted under the GAA Injury Benefit fund.

2) Dental Benefit – otherwise unrecoverable dental expenses up to a maximum of €5,200.00. The first €100.00 of each and every claim is excluded. Where a claimant* has private medical insurance and makes a successful claim for benefit in that benefit is paid via their private medical insurance policy, the €100 excess on each and every claim will not apply on the claimant’s claim.

Please note that unrecoverable dental expenses will only be covered up to two years after the Injury date. For example, if the injury date is the 01/07/2023, unrecoverable dental expenses associated with the injury sustained on that date will only be covered up to the 30/06/2025.

Cover for unrecoverable dental expenses applies to treatment only within the Island of Ireland.

3) Supplementary Hospital Benefit – A claimant can claim for a stay in hospital* provided they are an in-patient for a minimum of 10 consecutive days and they can claim for a maximum of 15 days. €400.00 per day is claimable.

4) Loss of wages (applicable (a) to adults and (b) to youths who are in full time employment at the date of injury)

Employment* means permanent gainful employment of not less than 16 hours a week. Otherwise, unrecoverable loss of basic nett wages* (i.e., excluding overtime, bonuses, unsociable working hours, commission, allowances etc.) payable up to 26 weeks but excluding the first week. Social Welfare \ Income Protection and / or other entitlements will be considered as recoverable income and will be deducted from the basic nett wage* figure.

Benefit is payable for full weeks only and the maximum benefit payable per week is as follows:

Weeks 1 - No Benefit

Weeks 2 – 26 - Up to €300.00 per week

For a loss of wages claim to open the injured player must provide the club \ county with a letter from his attending GP \ consultant confirming that he will be unable to work as regards the injury sustained and an estimate of the expected period of work. Once received by DWF Claims, a loss of wages claim will open at that stage. As part of the assessment of the loss of wages claim, a claimant* will be requested to go for an Independent Medical Examination once the claimant has received 8 weeks loss of wages benefit. Details of the appointment for the Independent Medical Examination will be communicated in writing by DWF Claims to the club Injury Fund administrator to give to the claimant. No further loss of wages payments will be considered beyond 8 weeks until DWF Claims receive the report from the Independent Medical Examiner.

From time-to-time DWF Claims may use their discretion in not sending a claimant for an Independent Medical Examination depending on the nature of the injury sustained. A request for a medical report from the claimant’s GP \ consultant may also be requested as part of the assessment of the loss of wages claim.

Appendix 2

Club Officers Millstreet GAA club 2025

Millstreet GAA

Millstreet GAA

Cork

Players Information from executive