MINISTER FOR SPORT Patrick O’Donovan has said he has “no reason not to believe” the GAA’s commitment to integration despite the comments by former president Mary McAleese.
O’Donovan said the proposed integration of the GAA, LGFA, Camogie Association is “an existential issue” for the latter two organisations and that therefore the process needs to be a success.
Speaking this morning after the shock decision by McAleese’s to step down as chairperson of the steering group for integration, O’Donovan said that while the former President of Ireland’s 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 bombshelll 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.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, O’Donovan said that upon meeting the three organisations yesterday, each said they were “signed up” to a fully integrated single organisation for Gaelic games.
Asked by McCullagh if he believed them, O’Donovan said that he had “no reason not to believe them”.
When it was put to him that this wasn’t McAleese’s impression, the minister pivoted to efforts he made in 2016 to introduce gender quotas for Irish sporting bodies, saying that the GAA were very supportive of him at the time.
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O’Donovan then went on to say that 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 for 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.”
O’Donovan went on to say that when he spoke with GAA Director-General Tom Ryan on Wednesday, the official said he was confident that at some point in 2027 “a legal structure” for the new organisation would be designed and could be voted on by the three organisations.
“Ultimately, the last thing any of the organisations would want is if you put forward a motion to three congresses and one voted it down, then that sets the whole thing back maybe 20 years. That’d be disastrous,” the minister said.
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
O’Donovan 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.
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Minister for Sport says he has 'no reason not to believe' GAA's bona fides about integration
MINISTER FOR SPORT Patrick O’Donovan has said he has “no reason not to believe” the GAA’s commitment to integration despite the comments by former president Mary McAleese.
O’Donovan said the proposed integration of the GAA, LGFA, Camogie Association is “an existential issue” for the latter two organisations and that therefore the process needs to be a success.
Speaking this morning after the shock decision by McAleese’s to step down as chairperson of the steering group for integration, O’Donovan said that while the former President of Ireland’s 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 bombshelll 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.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, O’Donovan said that upon meeting the three organisations yesterday, each said they were “signed up” to a fully integrated single organisation for Gaelic games.
Asked by McCullagh if he believed them, O’Donovan said that he had “no reason not to believe them”.
When it was put to him that this wasn’t McAleese’s impression, the minister pivoted to efforts he made in 2016 to introduce gender quotas for Irish sporting bodies, saying that the GAA were very supportive of him at the time.
O’Donovan then went on to say that 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 for 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.”
O’Donovan went on to say that when he spoke with GAA Director-General Tom Ryan on Wednesday, the official said he was confident that at some point in 2027 “a legal structure” for the new organisation would be designed and could be voted on by the three organisations.
“Ultimately, the last thing any of the organisations would want is if you put forward a motion to three congresses and one voted it down, then that sets the whole thing back maybe 20 years. That’d be disastrous,” the minister said.
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”.
O’Donovan 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.
Written by Rónán Duffy and posted on TheJournal.ie
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