There was a unanimous vote to re-appoint John Egan as Chairman of the Dublin County Board at last night's senior county convention at Parnell Park.
It will be Egan's third successive term as chairman, with his re-appointment coming ahead of Tony Bass and John Bailey - the only other two nominations for this position.
With 263 votes cast, Egan received the overwhelming majority of 165, with Bailey, a former chairman receiving 81; and Bass receiving 15.
Con Clarke had earlier gone forward for nomination but stepped down at the convention.
Throughout the evening, there were a number of issues for discussion, not least the new sponsorship deal for the county teams which is now in the final stages of negotiation.
The current sponsors, Arnotts, will see their deal expire at the end of the championship next summer. The new agreement is now set to be completed before the end of the year.
However, there have been a number of leaks to the media in regard to the new potential sponsor. Egan, who described his "disgust and horror" as to how this information became available, commented: "The current press coverage of sponsorship and Dublin is inaccurate, premature and unhelpful. The finance committee were given responsibility for negotiating this new sponsorship, with the objective of achieving maximum value for the Dublin Brand.
"We have received a number of approaches from interested companies and we now await the final round of negotiations before reaching a decision. I am confident this team will deliver an outstanding deal for Dublin."
In addition, the proposed Football Development Committee Amendments to championship football that will be voted on at the GAA Congress next April, also came up for scrutiny.
In addressing the convention, county secretary John Costello warned of the problems that lie ahead. "While the recommendation of the committee is thought provoking" he said, "I am not sure that it is workable.
"A championship of the nature proposed, that would incorporate the league, provincial championships and the All-Ireland championships, would put such a strain on the rest of the GAA that I am not sure we could operate as successfully as we do at present."
Costello also outlined the financial position of the County Board which had accounts for the financial year ending September 30th, 1999, showing a surplus of £45,704. However, included in the accounts is the sum of £134,364 representing the amortisation of income from the advance sale of Parnell Park tickets. When this figure is extracted from the accounts the county committee had a deficit of £88,660.
