THE GAA, CAMOGIE Association and LGFA have announced 2027 as the proposed date for full integration between the three organisations.
The Steering Group for Integration, chaired by former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, unveiled their pathway at Croke Park today.
Larry McCarthy, Hilda Breslin and Míchéal Naughton, Presidents of the GAA, Camogie Association and LGFA respectively and members of the steering group, also spoke at the briefing.
“I wouldn’t say 2027 is the target,” Breslin said at one point. “2027 is when this is going to happen.”
Over the past 18 months, the views of members and officials across all three Associations have been sought and following discussions in the period since, 2027 has been earmarked as the proposed date for the completion of the process.
A survey of 30,000 GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association members previously found that nine out of 10 felt that integration of the Gaelic games bodies would be positive.
Since November 2023, cross-organisational working groups have addressed areas such as facilities, finance, fixtures, human resources, membership and player welfare, with proposals identified. Work with these groups will continue over the next three years.
Updates on the steering group’s work, and future plans, will be provided at Annual Congresses over the coming weeks. Recommendations on integration will eventually be put to the membership of the three Associations, to be voted on, and potentially passed.
“We hope it’s a very historic day for Gaelic games,” McAleese said at Croke Park earlier.
“The narrative of Ireland’s Gaelic games is probably the most extraordinary successful story of amateur sport anywhere in the world. And for that, we have to thank three extraordinary organisations.
“From the grassroots up, over a number of years now, we have heard the call for the integration into one Association and so we meet this morning as the steering integration group which was tasked by the three organisations, with the job of finding a pathway to integration. We believe we have found that pathway through 18 months of hard listening to all the constituencies with views.
“Discerning, distilling, and pulling it together so that we would have a really good positive story to almost one million members. We have listened to them, we have taken their wisdom on board, and we believe that between 2024 and 2027, we will be able to offer a pathway to integration that will lead us to one Association for Gaelic games.
“We’re hoping as of today, they’ll get behind us.”
“This is a very complex process,” she added. “It has taken us 18 months to devise a robust pathway that is capable of integrating these three organisations in a way that is respectful of all of them and gives comfort to all the codes that their future is going to be a very exciting future, one that’s going to make us all very proud.
“It is no less than the modernising of Gaelic games. We will only begin to know our strength in Gaelic games, I believe, when we have this integrated organisation up and running. And then, watch out. It will be extraordinary.”
Outgoing GAA President Larry McCarthy said that, based on the One Club Model, there will be integration at national, provincial, county and club level; one Membersship; one Congress; one Uachtarán and, likely, deputy Presidents; and potentially one Director-General.
There will also be a single injury benefit fund and staffing structure, with no job losses expected across the Associations; a joint fixtures review workgroup; a detailed audit of existing facilities and an equal access policy implementation; and a National Children’s Office. Significant Government funding will be sought.
“The vision of this institution is that we would be One Association for Gaelic games for all, that will be tagline ultimately,” McCarthy remarked. “It’ll take us time and space, and we need that. But we’re well capable of doing it and we’re well capable of doing it very, very well.
“By 2027, we will be a different looking organisation. The legal entity will be the GAA and we’ll be under that name but we’ll be a different Association in terms of the integration of the two other Associations.
“There should be no fear on anybody’s behalf for any of this at all. There will be parity of esteem and I would argue that the female voice in Irish sport will be amplified very, very well as a consequence of that.”
The Gaelic Players Association [GPA] welcomed today’s “clear deadline,” having brought the motion on integration to GAA Congress in 2022 before it was replicated at the LGFA and Camogie Association equivalents.
“This is a significant moment in time for Gaelic games and the GPA will play its part in ensuring the process is a success,” CEO Tom Parsons said.
“It has always been the GPA’s belief that there will be far more opportunities for Gaelic games upon integration compared to the challenges that are often highlighted. This is a very positive announcement for Irish sport.”
The GPA will be recognised as part of the new structure.
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