LAST UPDATE | 10 Sep

TÁNAISTE AND FINE Gael leader Simon Harris has said he hopes that the GAA’s plan to integrate the LGFA and Camogie Association will “get over the line” next year.

Speaking at his party’s think-in in Gorey on Thursday, Harris said that Mary McAleese, whose resignation from the Steering Group on Integration sparked furore – commands respect “right across the country”.

Because of this, Harris said it was concerning that someone of her stature “found herself meeting so much frustration or delay”, but he ruled out withholding funding from the GAA until the merger plans can get back on track.

“Knowing Mary McAleese, I know she will want some good to come from this and I hope that good is that finally this gets over the line in the course of 2027,” Harris told reporters.

“The only good thing that could possibly come from this is now everybody’s talking about integration. Yesterday, everybody recommitted to the process,” he said, calling for deeper reflection on the obstacles and blockages that caused her resignation.

The Tánaiste said he was in “absolutely no doubt that with the collective ingenuity” of the GAA and other organisations that issues concerning costs can be resolved.

On this, Harris added that the GAA has been “remarkably successful at knowing how to raise revenue”.

Sport committee wants meeting

The Oireachtas Committee for sport has appealed to the GAA to accept its invitation to meet and discuss the association’s collapsed plans to integrate the GAA, LGFA, Camogie Association.

Alan Kelly, Labour Party TD and committee chair, said Mary McAleese’s resignation from the Steering Group on Integration is “very worrying”.

An invitation to appear before the Oireachtas committee was extended to the GAA on Monday but, according to Kelly, it has yet to accept.

He said such a meeting would allow politicians and the public to hear “what changed from the statements that [the GAA] made to the committee at previous appearances and what plans they have for the future”.

Kelly also said the integration project has “been on the back burner” for too long, and any actions that delay it would be “regressive”.

“Kicking this can down the road would send a terrible signal to the thousands of girls in particular who pull on jerseys every weekend and to the volunteers who keep clubs running in every parish in the country.”

Minister’s take

Meanwhile, minister for sport Patrick O’Donovan has said he has “no reason not to believe” the GAA’s commitment to integration.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, O’Donovan said that each organisation said they were “signed up” to a fully integrated single organisation for Gaelic games. O’Donovan said that he had “no reason not to believe them”.

The minister said the proposed integration plan is “an existential issue” for the LGFA and the Camogie Association, and that therefore it needs to be a success.

O’Donovan said that while the former President of Ireland’s shock departure was “really disappointing” he was confident that “a huge amount of good” will come from the public debate it has generated.

McAleese’s decision came in the wake of GAA chiefs informing the steering group that they could not commit to previously agreed 2027 timeline for integration.

In her bombshell interview on RTÉ’s Inside Sport earlier this week, McAleese had said that the GAA management committee was “lacking in vision for the future of the GAA” and had “blocked our plan” for integration.

The minister met with McAleese and each of the three organisations on Wednesday, saying today that the process was the “largest change” in the 142-year history of the GAA.

Timeline towards integration

In a paper presented to the steering group this week, GAA Director-General Tom Ryan said that the work of the group needs to be built on to “derive a clear, detailed and phased plan over the next five years”.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin Castle today, O’Donovan said that Ryan told him a new independent chair of the steering group will be appointed and a meeting of the group will be held on 8 October.

He said the steering group will then put a draft proposal together in relation to timelines. 

He said Ryan also confirmed that motions will be available to the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association in 2027 so that each organisation can pass a resolution allowing the creation of a new legal entity amalgamating the organisations. 

“What will be absolutely disastrous here is if resolutions that aren’t properly structured and properly thought out and have any degree of negativity in them are put to three congresses and two vote for it and one vote against it, or two vote against it and one vote for it,” O’Donovan said.

“That will be disastrous and it will be the end of integration and that’s not something that I think anybody would want to see.”

The message from the minister echoed a letter Ryan sent to GAA county and club secretaries in recent days on foot of the controversy.

In that letter, Ryan said it would be “unreasonable” to ask members to sign up for a merged organisation “that wasn’t clearly configured”.

Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese was appointed as independent integration chairperson in September 2023. INPHO INPHO

Whilst speaking on RTÉ this morning, O’Donovan said the question of integration is perhaps the most stark for the two organisations that are not the GAA.

“The LGFA and the Camogie Association made very simple points to me yesterday, which was, we’re essentially voting to extinguish ourselves,” O’Donovan said.

“This is an existential issue for them. They will no longer exist. So whatever new organisation comes forward, it has to meet the needs of the cultural needs and the sporting needs of the Camogie Association and the LGFA.”

The minister repeated this point later in the interview and when it was put to him that he appeared to be suggesting that the LGFA and Camogie Association also bore some responsibility for the delay, O’Donovan replied:

“No, it’s not a fair characterisation. And nice try of you, though, to try and make it a fair characterisation.”

Power structures

O’Donovan also said that part of the process of integration will involve GAA county boards and provincial counties being “abolished and reconstructed” and that this was “not simple”.

On the question of female participation in the power structures of the GAA, O’Donovan pointed to former tánaiste Mary Coughlan as being chairperson of the Donegal County Board.

He added that both the LGFA and Camogie Association would need to “get proper representation in the new county boards” of a reconstituted GAA.

The minister expressed some dissatisfaction with the media, saying that “if the LGFA and Camogie Association got half of the media attention that they got in the last two or three days” around their games “we would see bigger crowds”.

O’Donovan said it would not be appropriate for him to suggest a successor to McAleese as chair of the steering group for integration, but he acknowledged she would be “a hard act to follow”.

He added:

“I actually think a huge amount of good will come out of this because, apart from a small group of people, it was on the agenda for myself to talk to the GAA about yesterday, just how are you getting on, but the principal meeting was supposed to be about hurling.

All of a sudden, now there’s people talking about integration who never even heard of it, and that is a good thing. ”

The minister said that he will be seeking “quarterly updates” on the progress of integration.

With additional reporting from Sophie Finn, Christina Finn and Eoghan Dalton