COUNTY CHAIRMAN, Diarmuid Deveruex, painted a startling picture when he told delegates 'we are living off our creditors'.

'We are staying on our feet by not paying our debts. I'm saying we have a cash flow crisis because of our debt burden. The figure of €357,803 (loss on Glenbrien lands) is coming back to haunt us and has been haunting us for years,' he told delegates.

'My talk to you (delegates and club officers) tonight is about governance. You are all shareholders and that is one of the reasons you are here tonight,' he said.

'The best banker I had was my mother in the last 50 or so years. That was a time when parents raised large families during the not so booming times. Her rule is "don't spend money if you have not got it. Don't borrow money if you cannot pay it back".

'The PLCS like Anglo Irish and Nationwide did not do that and look where they are,' he told delegates.

So for Wexford G.A.A. into the future they will, he said, start with userfriendly accounts that people can understand.

'Not in any way being disparaging towards anyone, but there are not five people who can understand our accounts and this is something that's going to be addressed,' he added.

As regards the creditors, they have cheques written out, but they cannot be cashed as the money is not there, he said, adding that on the morning of County Convention, Wexford G.A.A. had a judgement against it in the High Court in Dublin, with the case being settled on the steps on the advice of their legal advisors.

This was something the Management committee was not aware of, while the details cannot be published owing to a confidentiality clause. However, the award includes costs other than the G.A.A. counsel's costs.

Clubs waiting on Leinster Council grants were stunned to hear that the money from the provincial body was used to pay creditors. Grants to the amount of €71,750 were paid to Wexford G.A.A. as grants for clubs which were subsequently not passed on.

'Even if all the money is called in, the creditors are still beyond what we can pay. We are staying on our feet by not paying our debts. That's what we've had since county Convention. It ruined many a person's Christmas as that type of money owed is staggering with a €2m turnover,' the new County Chairman continued.

'The €70,000-odd due to clubs will be sent out over the next couple of weeks. We are just waiting on monies to come in and then we'll send out the cheques when we have the money to cover them,' he added.

He also informed those present when referring to proposed cuts that the money the county spend on medals far exceeds other counties. The Leinster Under-21 medals, he

said, cost a lot less than what Wexford pays, yet they were beautiful medals.

'We envisage a saving of €2,000 on medals for 2012 as part of our cuts,' he said.

Referring to the cost of the county's Senior teams, he re-iterated that the managers are in no way being paid a fortune. Wexford hurling always brought in the money so the county has to resurrect the game.

He said the inter-county teams' expenses will be cut by €90,000 which is going to cause difficulties for people running teams, but hopefully the county will be able to work and progress with the budget available.

Looking at administrative expenses and the salary system in Wexford G.A.A., Devereux said that they don't employ people, Leinster Council and Croke Park do. He said that half the salaries are being paid for by Leinster Council while a large proportion of the County Secretary's salary is paid by Croke Park.

There are savings for transferring more of this under the Leinster Council umbrella, with the county working on savings of €25,000 in this area.

Devereux also said there is another way of saving through work practices and coaching and changing the system by turning the coaching resources to night time and into the clubs which would be of considerable help to the clubs.

Officer expenses last year, he added, amounted to €18,000, with €12,000 approximately the County Chairman's expenses.

'I will be cutting the Chairman's expenses totally so that will be a saving straight away in this area. There will be no more expenses and no more credit cards.'

He also said that members of the county Management committee will only be paid expenses by prior approval.

He also mentioned the miscellaneous figure of €29,000 in the accounts. 'You can take €20,000 out of that. You don't put in €29,000 into miscellanous, the accountants put it in, but that was because of the way we set it up.'

But the County Chairman gave a commitment that €750,000 would still be pledged to games development.

'One thing we need is coaching in the clubs. Cuts here will be minimal as we have to keep our young people involved.

'The Government FAS scheme is not included in our accounts. We have 13 FAS coaches at a cost of €250,000. We are spending €750,000 a year on coaching and development,' Devereux said.

The Chairman said they have accumulated the cuts into about the €200,000 figure.

However, when moving onto the income side, he said that simply making cuts is not going to work alone, as they also have to start raising money.

He said that O'neill's will come back by some €30,000 for the sales of replica gear as O'neill's is nothing to what it was.

'We are also losing sponsors but we are working hard to bring in new sponsors. The Supporters' Club has secured a sponsored car from Ferrybank Motors for Liam Dunne.

'We also have the insurance sponsored and fuel sponsorship. Enniscorthy Motor Company is sponsoring a vehicle for Jason Ryan and we also have other sponsorship in place.

'Overall we will be down some €50,000 which will come out of the €200,000 saved. That's the scenario we are faced with,' he added.

On the Model County draw, he said last year the clubs put in a huge effort. 'With the same effort this year we can match that, so we have pencilled in a figure to match that.

'The creditors are waiting outside to be paid. The season is up and running but we'll have cuts. That's just the way it is.'