do you think Sean did anything wrong by collecting €5k for GAA clubs for filling out grant forms and ensuring that his then boss 'looked after' the payees with public money?
You are assuming he did something wrong, he may have but I have not seem any evidence of this. The skill of completing these applications has a significant bearing on whether your application will succeed where others fail. I did this, long ago,for sports groups who had failed in previous applications. This was through a consultancy firm and pre - FF. In the same way as it can be advantageous to use a claims assessor in a flood damage claim, there is expertise in grant funding applications.
It would appear that the clubs were well aware of the charges and happy to pay them. I am sure that a 5k donation to the local government TD would have been far quicker if the motivation to get the funding approved outside of normal appraisal processes.