By Email:
To Club Secretaries
5 Nollaig 2025

A Chairde, 
GAA Injury Benefit Fund - Club Player Claim Process Update
I am pleased to advise that following an interim review of the new GAA Injury Benefit Fund claims handling process, it has been agreed with the GAA’s Claims handlers to introduce (with immediate effect) the option for a Club player to authorise an injury fund claim payment to be made directly to their GAA club.
Following the introduction from 1st June last of the updated claims handling process for the reporting and management of new Injury claims, an interim review has been conducted with our new fund administrators based on the feedback received. 
There continues to be an incorrect assumption that the GAA Injury Benefit Fund is a 3rd Party insurance product and that it will cover all medical expenses associated with a Player’s Injury.
This is not the case, and the GAA Injury Benefit Fund remains a self-funded GAA Fund that is in place to support and assist injured GAA players that have no other means of cover for their medical costs incurred or if there are shortfalls or excesses payable on their private health insurance policies. There remains no obligation on GAA units to cover medical costs, but it is fully acknowledged that some units do cover such medical costs for their players.
Following the interim review, we have worked with our claims administrators to introduce a change to the payment flow process in that all Club Players or their parents/guardians will now be given an option when an approved injury claim is payable to either:
1. Confirm that the player or a parent/ guardian is to receive the payment and the player or a parent/guardian will provide their own bank details or


2. The player or parent can confirm that the payment will go directly to their club and payment will go to the club bank account once a screenshot of the club bank account details is provided by the player or the parent/guardian.

The player or the parent will be required to give this instruction on the payment, as under GDPR requirements, the player or the parent/guardian remain responsible for managing their claim. Instructions received directly from clubs will not be dealt with by the claim’s administrators.
Over the coming months we will be making further enhancements to the claims administration system to improve the reporting capabilities for all units as part of the next round of system developments with the aim to allow units to view all their outstanding player claims and to view if a player’s claim has been settled and/or paid.
The primary aim of the new claims handling process was to reduce the workload on club volunteers as the work on Injury Fund claims was previously very time consuming and to adhere with GDPR rules \ requirements. 
The new process requires the club secretary \ Injury Fund administrator to approve the claims once the player \ parent registers the claim through Foireann. Spot checks on cases have shown that club secretary \ Injury Fund administrators are not approving the cases correctly. We would ask that all club secretaries \ injury fund administrators to approve player claims in line with the Fund guidelines. 
We are aware that some players \ parents \ units are having issues with notifying a claim or approving a claim on Foireann. I have included links at the end of this communication which will provide clear guidance and assistance to the issues that people have been experiencing.
Many of the issues that clubs are having with regards to approving a claim is that the player \ parent is registering a claim against a team which has not been noted for Injury Fund cover. It remains each unit’s responsibility to check that all their relevant teams are on cover under the Fund. We are currently developing a webinar for all stakeholders of the Injury Benefit Fund, and this will be made available in due course and communicated accordingly.


The membership year of the GAA for 2026 will be April 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027. We have previously communicated that the Injury Benefit Fund will move to a price per player model from April 1, 2026, from the current price per team structure. Further communications will issue on this change in due course. This change will remove the current issues as noted above requiring correct team selection. 
From next year provided a player is fully registered on Foireann, every player will be covered under the GAA Injury Fund regardless of what code, team, unit he plays with. Therefore, all GAA units need to ensure that they are accurately registering all playing members on Foireann for 2026 to ensure that Injury Fund cover is in place for those members. 
Please see the links below for assistance on the Injury Benefit Fund. I have also included a copy of the poster previously made available to units via their County Board. Should any unit require further copies, please email ciara.clarke@gaa.ie for assistance.
Player Injury Fund (GAA) – Gaelic Athletic Association https://gmssupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/categories/6791164879132-Player-Injury-Fund-GAA
GAA Injury Benefit Fund | Tobar
https://learning.gaa.ie/injurybenefitfund
Is mise.

_______________
Ciara Clarke 
GAA injury Fund Manager