Key updatesIntegration will ‘take a long time’, GAA President saysJarlath Burns says integration would ‘double costs’ from €45m to €90mGAA President ‘disappointed’ by McAleese resignation and ‘regrettable’ comments‘The GAA don’t want this’ – Cora Staunton slams director-general for ‘patronising’ interview over integration timeline Just nowDavid Kent
Burns arrives for meeting with Sport Minister
GAA President Jarlath Burns has arrived for a meeting with Sport Minister Patrick O’Donovan.
On his way into the meeting, he said the organisation was operating to a timeline for amalgamation, but the feedback from members were that they “weren’t happy” with the planned structures.
Mr Burns said he did not want to pre-empt the conversation with the Minister in his comments.
He said the organisation wants to achieve equality players, “that every girl and every boy can feel that they are playing on an equal basis”.
Dr Mary McAleese is also due to meet with the Minister during a separate meeting this afternoon.
Maeve McTaggart 19 minutes agoDavid Kent
Integration will ‘take a long time’, GAA President says
Jarlath Burns told RTÉ’s News At One there was a “legitimate fear” that integration could have been voted against at GAA Congress if issues around governance structures of the new organisation were not fully clarified.
He said membership of the integrated GAA would have been possible, but there were some people expressing confusion over exactly what they “were becoming a member of”.
“We felt that it would be better to wait until we have our actual Congresses, come with a different, more specific motion that would be more prescriptive as to what that new organisation will look like, to know exactly what we were voting for, because we have to vote for the structures first, and then vote for the membership.
“I think that will work. There’s no point in voting for the membership first until we have the structures, the high performance, everything else agreed, and then we can proceed.
“And it’s going to take a long time, because with every piece that we decide on, we have to go back to our members.
“We have to gain a consensus because that’s the way the GAA, Camogie Association and the LGFA work.
“It’s not like company law where you just go to the board and the board, we don’t have executive power. We have to constantly go back to our members.”
On how long integration will take, Mr Burns said the timeline “has actually held us back more than anything else”, but he still feels “a lot” can be achieved in 2027.
Darragh Nolan 33 minutes agoDavid Kent
Jarlath Burns says integration would ‘double costs’ from €45m to €90m
GAA president Jarlath Burns told RTÉ’s News At One he remains “absolutely committed to integration”.
Mary McAleese said on Tuesday that she was “shocked” to hear he did not “really support the idea”.
“I’m still absolutely committed to integration. I want every single girl who plays the game to feel the same way as everybody playing,” Mr Burns said.
Touching on the GAA’s statement in the wake of Ms McAleese’s resignation, which spoke about focusing on “equity” in the integrated organisation rather than “equality”, he said that specifically related to the highest level of intercounty Gaelic games.
He said that going straight to equality for intercounty ladies’ football and camogie teams at the elite intercounty level would see expenditure on county teams double from €45m to €90m.
“We actually have a poor record in the GAA of controlling expenditure currently.
“If we go straight into equality, the 45 million which we currently spend preparing country teams goes to 90 million. We just simply cannot sustain that.
“It’s about resources and the allocation of resources and fundraising that our county’s volunteers have to do.”
“I have to remember that I am the president of the GAA and I am accountable to the membership of the GAA, and in every county I go into, I hear of the same thing from county treasurers and county chairs to say, we have to be very careful that we don’t just double our expenses on county teams.”
Mr Burns said a committee has been set up to regulate county team expenses so the GAA “can do a better job of it” when integration is finalised.
“But it is not a question of trying to create a two-tiered approach. It is a graduated response depending on the development of the county team that is in the particular county.”
Asked if it was a worry for the GAA that greater resources would have to be allocated to women’s intercounty teams, Mr Burns said: “Probably, in a nutshell, yes, that’s it, because we just don’t have the resources currently to be able to provide for that.
“That is not to say that at a later stage, if we were in a situation where we were having similar crowds going to female games as male games, that we couldn’t get there.”
46 minutes agoDavid Kent
GAA President ‘disappointed’ by McAleese resignation and ‘regrettable’ comments
GAA president Jarlath Burns has said he was “disappointed by Mary McAleese’s resignation as chair of the integration steering committee, but he took issue with some of the comments she made in the statement she made on Tuesday.
“I’m very disappointed about the resignation of Dr McAleese. She’s somebody I have immense respect for,” Mr Burns told RTÉ Radio 1’s News At One.
“I thought it was wonderful that we had her as chair. I thought she did well.
“I felt that some of the comments which she made yesterday were very regrettable, particularly about the gender issue and about the role of women, because under my presidency, we have moved to a 40pc gender quota.
“It’s actually gone up to nine out of 19, which is closer to 50pc female representation, on the GAA’s Management Committee, which is the highest committee.
“Every national committee has significant female representation, and in fact, five of our national committees are chaired by women.”Darragh Nolan
54 minutes agoDavid Kent
What has Mary McAleese said?
McAleese has described the GAA’s stalling on the agreed timelines for integration as “almost like a betrayal of the women in our sporting cultures.”
McAleese stepped down after an ISG meeting yesterday where the GAA’s representatives pointed out that the agreed 2027 deadline — Special Congresses were to take place next month — could not be met.
The GAA sought more time, amidst concerns over potential inter-county costs, but McAleese saw that as the final straw and was highly critical of the current GAA leadership.
In an extensive interview on her departure with RTÉ Radio 1’s Inside Sport the former President of Ireland said it was “a slap in the face” for women in the GAA.
Read the full piece here
‘The GAA don’t want this’ – Cora Staunton slams director-general for ‘patronising’ interview over integration timeline
GAA director-general Tom Ryan was speaking in the wake of former President Dr Mary McAleese’s resignation as chairperson of the Gaelic Games Integration Steering Group
All-Ireland winning former Mayo ladies’ footballer Cora Staunton hit out on Wednesday morning at the GAA’s director-general Tom Ryan over a ‘patronising’ interview – saying she doesn’t believe the GAA want integration.
In an interview early on Wednesday morning, Mr Ryan said the GAA is “just not ready” for the proposed timeline for integration with the LGFA and Camogie Association.
Describing integration as a “complex undertaking”, Mr Ryan said the aim was to have a special GAA Congress ahead of the launch of integration in 2027, but he said the GAA has “missed a deadline”
His comments come in the wake of former president of Ireland Dr Mary McAleese’s resignation as chairperson of the Gaelic Games Integration Steering Group, a role she had held since 2022.
Read the full piece here:
‘The GAA don’t want this’ – Cora Staunton slams director-general for ‘patronising’ interview over integration timelineGAA director-general Tom Ryan was speaking in the wake of former President Dr Mary McAleese’s resignation as chairperson of the Gaelic Games Integration Steering Groupwww.independent.ieTickarooLive Blog Software