The Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and the Camogie Association would be “very silly” to propose motions that would abolish them without certain guarantees about their future, Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan has said.
Efforts to merge the two women’s organisations with the GAA under one umbrella group were dealt a setback on Tuesday when former president Mary McAleese stepped down as chair of the Steering Group on Integration (SGI), which was overseeing the process.
McAleese said she did not believe integration of the associations would happen under current GAA leadership.
O’Donovan spoke to representatives from the three associations on Wednesday in a meeting that was scheduled prior to McAleese stepping down.
“I asked a very straight question of all three of them yesterday: ‘Are you signed up to integration, a fully integrated single Gaelic games organisation?’ And all three said ‘yes’,” O’Donovan told Today with David McCullagh on RTÉ Radio.
He said an important part of the integration process was “making sure that the two women’s organisations that are about to be abolished … that their culture, their ethos, their position in Irish society is also respected, and that they get proper representation in the new county boards, the new provincial councils, the new central councils, and the new management committees”.
“Wouldn’t the Camogie Association and the LGFA be very silly to essentially put forward resolutions to their individual congresses that’s going to extinguish them, unless they were absolutely guaranteed that representation for their sports and their codes was absolutely assured and guaranteed from the outset?”
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O’Donovan said the two associations on Wednesday told him they were “essentially voting to extinguish ourselves” and, as such, wanted guarantees around the protection and promotion of women’s sports.
“This is an existential issue for them. They will no longer exist. So, whatever new organisation comes forward, it has to meet the needs, the cultural needs and the sporting needs, of the Camogie Association and the LGFA.”
GAA director general Tom Ryan this week said his organisation was “just not ready” for the integration of the three associations. O’Donovan said Ryan assured him on Wednesday he was confident that motions on integration could be put before the three congresses next year.
“I said I’m not interested in the month but, during 2027, will we be in a position to have motions put to congresses? And he said yes, he was confident of that.”
The Minister said it would take time to get the process right and, if one association did not back the proposal, “that sets the whole thing back maybe 20 years”.
“Ultimately, if one out of the three of these congresses decided to vote no – that’s not beyond the bounds of possibility – the whole thing then is scuppered, gone. That would be absolutely disastrous.”
In an interview with RTÉ on Tuesday, McAleese claimed some people within the GAA were “not entirely happy about the idea of including women in decision-making at the top level of Gaelic sports”. GAA president Jarlath Burns hit back at this allegation, describing it as “offensive” to the women who make up 40 per cent of the organisation’s management committee.
O’Donovan said he did not want to get into “she said, they said”, but also pointed to the level of female members on GAA boards and committees nationally.
He said it was “really disappointing” McAleese had stepped down from the role and thanked her for her service, saying “she’s a hard act to follow”.
The minister would not be drawn on who might replace her, saying he “wouldn’t be appropriate … to be throwing around names like snuff at the wake”.