Latest plan has realism previously lacking

SEÁN MORAN On Gaelic Games: The GAA's Strategic Vision and Action Plan 2009-2015 touches on important topics and plausibly details how it wants the GAA to address them

IT DOESN'T seem like the best part of seven years, but that's what it is. In January, 2002, the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) report was launched to the media in Dublin's Burlington Hotel. Established by Seán McCague at the start of his presidency two years previously, the SRC deliberated long and hard before delivering a sizeable tome of 264 pages.

Fast forward to this week and the GAA's sequel to the report has been published. Given the SRC was in itself a follow-up to the 1971 McNamee Commission report, it's relevant to read yesterday's The GAA's Strategic Vision and Action Plan 2009-2015as part of an continuing narrative over nearly 40 years.

Although Páraic Duffy, who this week marks the first anniversary of his appointment as director general and who was the driving force behind the plan, was at pains to differentiate between the previous report and the new plan, he will also hope any comparisons with the strategic plan's predecessors don't extend too far.

It could be argued the McNamee Commission, the first major investigation into the affairs of the association, is more a matter of primarily historical significance, given many of its recommendations were consigned to dusty shelves.

But as well as providing a fascinating insight into the thinking within the organisation at the time, the commission report did influence the administrative shape of the GAA for arguably the decades of greatest change in its history.

One of Duffy's predecessors, Seán Ó Síocháin, in his farewell address to congress in 1979, paid tribute to the impact of the commission's proposals: "The McNamee Commission had crystallised much of the new thinking in the association, pointed to horizons hitherto undreamt of and got the whole organisation to think and act in a bigger, better, more positive and more professional way."

With hindsight it's possible to interpret that ringing endorsement as post hoc justification.

Among the recommendations of the commission were: establishment of a management committee, the general secretary to become the director general, appointment of a PRO, appointment of a full-time officer to service the "Hurling Revival", sponsorship to be accepted, advertising to be allowed at all GAA grounds, hurling to be 13-a-side, abolition of under-21 competition, open draw for football, provincial championships to be abolished, open draw for hurling, provincial championships to be retained.

It also recommended the then already paltry television coverage be cut back further. Even the administrative reforms that did stand the test of time were the subject of controversy during the 1970s, with Kildare actually dismantling its management committee at one stage.

The SRC seven years ago proposed a range of ideas, some of them very sound, including capping the length of time for which county officials could hold office. But the one that gathered most coverage was the suggestion that Dublin be split in two, north and south - a division that awaits implementation.

Committee chair and former GAA president Peter Quinn, in one of the many soundbites he would utter around that time, summed up succinctly the task facing the association: "Running an organisation like the GAA requires unique skills. It is necessary to balance idealism with pragmatism . . ."

The latest plan fulfils that remit effectively and looks to have the potential to achieve its aims in a manner that eluded its predecessors. For a start, it restricts idealism to stated aspirations, framed as where the organisation would like to be at the end of the seven years.

Second, the pragmatism is given hard and fast targets, phased through the years of the plan's proposed implementation. It is literally a plan rather than a report, as can be seen elsewhere in these pages.

Timing hasn't been kind in that two major player-related issues, drug testing and the likely cessation after one year of the intercounty players' awards scheme, have become red-hot topics just as the plan was at the printers and it touches on neither.

But the question of amateurism has been given an interesting make-over in the proposals' emphasis on volunteerism and on the recruiting and training of volunteers, including a pilot scheme that will seek to secure a commitment for one year's voluntary work from primarily former players but also all inactive members of clubs.

Unlike the MacNamee and SRC reports, this plan is not an exercise in deliberation, so the issue of professionalism or semi-professionalism is not addressed beyond the aim of continuing "to value and encourage our volunteers".

Other modern challenges receive more detailed treatment. An integrated three-year national fixtures schedule is proposed, as well as training to enable counties run their games' programmes efficiently. A major overhaul of communications strategy, addressing the disconnected relationship between Croke Park and the clubs, is also scheduled.

As the introduction notes, the number of non-Irish nationals living here has risen by almost 60 per cent since the SRC report and the section on inclusion and integration contains many good ideas for responding to people from other countries and cultures.

It is also fascinating to see how Scoil Eoin in Gort responded to the presence of a large Brazilian community by encouraging the children's participation in Gaelic games and then asking them to write reports of their activities on the school website in Portuguese.

Another proposal is for the establishment of cross-community teams in Northern Ireland as part of the continuing effort to develop links with the Unionist community.

One definite change in emphasis from the SRC in this section can be seen in the couple of lines about camogie and women's football, undertaking "to work closely" "to the mutual benefit of all games".

The SRC said back in 2002: "Formal integration of Gaelic football, women's football, hurling and camogie is necessary if the task of promoting Gaelic games to 50 per cent of the population is not to be left entirely to two very committed and energetic bodies which, as things stand, have too few resources and very little finance."

A final quibble might be the occasional excesses of corporate speak (a genre best illustrated in The Simpsonsby The Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence), but overall, the plan touches on a range of important topics and plausibly details how it wants the GAA to address them.

• smoran@irish-times.ie