The GAA’s Management Committee no longer believe 2027 is a realistic target for full integration of the three Gaelic games organisations.
The position of the GAA’s top officials on the previously stated time frame was outlined to Mary McAleese, chair of the Steering Group on Integration (SGI), during a meeting of the Management Committee late last month.
It is understood McAleese, who has remained steadfast in her belief the timeline would be met, rejected their judgment on the matter.
The Management Committee’s view was expressed just days after the former president of Ireland told a gathering of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture that she believed 2027 was still a realistic and achievable goal.
READ MORE
The 2027 time frame has long been questioned in some GAA circles though and these utterances from the association’s leading officials now cast serious doubts over the possibility of having the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association under one umbrella by the end of next year.
The minutes of the December Management Committee meeting states: “The consensus of Coiste Bainistiochta was that 2027 represents an unrealistic target for full and complete integration.
“Their considered view was that a phased implementation would represent a more measured approach in order to better manage any risks and accommodate any reasonable reservations.”
The minutes continued: “The view was rejected by the independent chair, who expressed her disappointment at the view of the Coiste.”
Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee meeting on December 17th, while sitting next to GAA president Jarlath Burns and director general Tom Ryan, McAleese reaffirmed her belief that integration in 2027 was achievable.
“It is our target date for integration, for one organisation representing all codes in 2027,” she said.
“That date was gathered from looking at the work that needed to be done to achieve integration and to achieve it well. We’ve been doing that work consistently and overwhelmingly at times.
“If we were starting today, yes of course it would be ambitious, but in 2023 it was not ambitious and it is not ambitious, it is a realisable target. That is the plan we’ve been working towards, that’s what we’ve been scheduling everything towards and we believe firmly that it is achievable.”
But there have been rumblings of discontent from some counties and indeed provincial councils regarding the time frame.
Indeed, at that same Oireachtas meeting, McAleese admitted there were “pockets of resistance” but insisted most still wanted the status quo changed.
“We’re not going to get 100 per cent, but here’s the thing, integration is the future,” she said.
“We were asked by each of the three congresses, as a group, to prioritise integration because from the ground up that is what people wanted.”
That the Management Committee used the phrase ‘full and complete’ integration still leaves the door open for some form of amalgamation to have occurred by 2027 as it was never declared the entire model would be complete by then, and as such it could remain an ongoing process.
In fact, it was best summed up by former Tyrone footballer Conor Meyler last October when speaking at an Oireachtas meeting.
Meyler – who has studied the mergers of male and female national sporting organisations – stated: “What we have seen in the research is the different phases of the merger – the pre-merger, the transition phase and post-merger. To me, equality is a commitment to a direction rather than a moment in time.”
The GAA and GPA were asked for comment on the views expressed by the Management Committee on the integration process, but both declined.
