GAELIC GAMES:THE NUMBER of cases being taken to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) have tailed off steadily in the three years of its existence. According to DRA secretary Liam Keane, the workload has reduced by five-sixths since the body was established in May 2005 to address the frequency with which GAA decisions were being challenged in the courts.

"The number of cases has dropped considerably," he said. "For the first six months we were averaging six a month - 37 in the first six months - but by last year that had fallen to two a month."

That rate has halved in the first three months of this year, with just three cases arising. Next up will be Friday's hearing at which the group opposed to the Irish Sports Council awards scheme for intercounty players will present their re-formulated case.

According to Keane, there has been no formal contact from the county boards in Roscommon and Wexford, both of whom were expected to challenge the decision taken by the Central Competitions Control Committee to award forfeits to counties that Cork were unable to play because of the dispute in the county. "There have been a few phone calls looking for information, but I have had no request for arbitration," he said.

Keane said a number of factors contributed to the reduction in demand for DRA intervention.

"As I see it, there have been a few influences. One, there was the novelty factor in the early months.

"Added to that was the number of older disputes, that had been rumbling on for years, which were brought forward to see if the DRA could sort them out.

"With the passage of time and the publication of the decisions, people knew the type of case and argument that would succeed at arbitration. The new enforcement of rules procedures are also working better than they're generally given credit for."

In the DRA's first months it heard cases involving prominent intercounty players, Mark Vaughan and Ryan McMenamin, both of whom escaped the full impact at intercounty level of suspensions. Keane doesn't believe this may have encouraged others to try their luck at arbitration.

"Early cases tended to concern disciplinary matters taken by units or individuals. There were a number of high-profile cases, but there were also cases in which the applicants failed to overturn suspensions."

The settling down of the workload has come as a relief to Keane in his own solicitor's practice in Dunshaughlin, and he is pleased with progress in the last three years, during which no one has successfully bypassed the GAA's system of independent arbitration and no one has even tried to challenge in the courts one of the authority's decisions.

"It was extremely busy at the start and I had one secretary who was almost full-time on DRA cases. I was also conscious that it had to be done properly, with adequate notice and making sure everyone knew in good time about hearings.

"At the start it was said that the process should be 'fast, final, flexible and fair' and I'd like to think that it has passed those tests."