The leadership of all three Gaelic games associations are braced for an interrogation on integration when they sit before an Oireachtas Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Representatives from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and Camogie Association (CA) have been invited to a sitting of the Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport at Leinster House to discuss the unravelling of the integration roadmap.
The foremost officials from the GAA (director general Tom Ryan and president Jarlath Burns), LGFA (CEO Lyn Savage and president Trina Murray) and Camogie Association (CEO Karen Dessain-Gelinet and president Brian Molloy) will attend the 12.30pm meeting.
And rather than submitting separate opening statements, the three organisations – in a clear desire to demonstrate solidarity – will deliver joint opening remarks.
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The six attendees are also members of the Steering Group on Integration (SGI). Mary McAleese’s resignation as chair of the SGI in early September sparked a national debate on the integration process.
In that joint opening statement, the message will be that the three bodies remain “totally and unequivocally” committed to integration.
They will double down on that message by adding that Gaelic games “are for everyone” and insist their commitment to making integration “happen is as firm as ever and we say that with one voice”.
And while paying tribute to McAleese, they will strongly outline their view that her “work has not been lost”.
They will tell the Oireachtas that over the “past month there have been some who have equated Dr McAleese’s departure to the end of integration” but insist her efforts have “brought us a huge way down the road and we are closer to that goal because of her work – not further away.”
They will concede that the deadline was missed, saying the organisations simply weren’t ready to proceed. And they will admit that some have questioned the commitment of the associations, “specifically the GAA”, towards integration.
But the overriding message will be that they are united in achieving integration.
Members of all three associations have held private meetings with ministers since McAleese’s resignation but Wednesday’s summit will be their first formal public questioning since the controversy erupted.
Government ministers had asked that a new chairperson of the group be appointed at an SGI meeting on October 5th.
And while sources say that matter will be addressed on Wednesday, no appointment has yet been announced, with the process said to be “progressing but not yet finalised”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time in the immediate aftermath of McAleese’s resignation, Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue had stated: “It is really important a new chairperson is appointed on the October 5th and we would expect coming out of the October 5th [meeting] that clear outlines are provided from the three organisations in relation to how this can proceed.”
The three associations can expect some difficult questions in Leinster House on Wednesday.
McAleese was appointed independent chairperson of the SGI in September 2022. In February 2024, a timeline for full integration by April 2027 was announced at a press conference in Croke Park.
But while McAleese had remained steadfast in her belief the timeline would be met, there had been reservations expressed by some of the other members of the SGI.
Indeed, at a meeting of GAA’s Management Committee last December, it was concluded that 2027 was no longer a realistic target for full integration.
The Management Committee’s view came just days after McAleese, while sitting next to Burns and Ryan, had told a December 17th Oireachtas committee meeting that 2027 was still a realistic and achievable goal.
“It is our target date for integration, for one organisation representing all codes in 2027,” she said.
“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.”
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But within days of that Oireachtas meeting, the Management Committee of the GAA were questioning the likelihood of McAleese’s ambition coming to fruition. The failure of either side to budge on their opposing viewpoint in the months that followed ultimately led to her resigning in September.
And on the way out the door, the former president of Ireland launched a stinging criticism of the GAA’s top brass.
“I did meet the Management Committee, and a body, quite frankly, that was less than impressive and very disappointing to me as a long-term GAA supporter to meet a body so lacking in vision for the future of the GAA,” said McAleese last month.
“But it boils down to, in their view, finances, which incidentally we had taken great trouble to meet their concerns [about] and to have answers for their concerns that were more than credible and more than workable.”
“But I also suspect, and I hate to say this, but I suspect that there are people who are not entirely happy about the idea of including women in decision making at the top level of Gaelic sports.”
GAA president Jarlath Burns and director general Tom Ryan both rebutted the claims.
The power brokers, minus McAleese, will now be back in front of an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday. The meeting will be chaired by Labour’s Alan Kelly.
And after a tumultuous September the three organisations will put forward a united front in Leinster House.
But words alone might not placate the gallery because members of the Oireachtas will expect evidence that some manner of a fresh, achievable roadmap forward has been agreed.
