IRFU due to hold talks with Taoiseach

As the GAA yesterday insisted its negotiations with Government representatives regarding Croke Park were at no time connected to the issue of opening the stadium to other sports, the IRFU is to meet the Taoiseach to discuss its position. While the IRFU has maintained a strictly neutral attitude to the weekend's developments at Congress, its members must have observed developments with keen interest.

The announcement that the GAA is to receive a stadium grant of £60 million (with a £40 million additional grant for other development projects) follows confirmation that the FAI is also guaranteed a £60 million windfall as the Government presses ahead with plans for Stadium Ireland.

"Obviously we are aware of the situation," the IRFU chief executive Philip Browne said yesterday.

"The Taoiseach has agreed to meet us in the near future and we hope to explain what we are doing in terms of Irish rugby. We want to put forward our strategy for the future, to highlight the benefits of our game to the economy and illustrate our plan for the next period, and I think we will get a fair hearing."

Yesterday's statement from Croke Park could be interpreted as an attempt to defuse the intense wave of criticism which has followed the defeat of the motion to open up Croke Park to other sports despite the announcement of the Government grant.

GAA president Sean McCague, who attended a ceremony at Croke Park yesterday to celebrate the first 30 inductees to the An Post/GAA Hall of Fame, asked journalists not to press him for comment on the sensitive grant issue.

The fallout from the one-vote rejection of what was generally regarded as an enlightened amendment to Rule 42 continues at rank and file level. There have been reports of several delegates voting against the motion despite having received a mandate from their county boards to support it.

While the Dublin County Board has already announced that its delegates split before the vote, and the Limerick board is to hold an investigation on a similar departure, it yesterday emerged that three of the six Armagh delegates also went against the motion. But John Moley, the Armagh chairman and one of those who went against the motion, was adamant that they were not tied to any mandate from their board members.

"There was no vote taken on the issue nor no mandate given," he said. "And to state otherwise is misleading."

One of the 89 delegates who voted against the amendment, Moley said his main reservation lay in the implications that opening Croke Park might have for local GAA grounds across the country.

"My worry was that it would be the thin edge of a wedge," he said.

Although he agreed that the financial aspect of the motion had been preying on his mind, he maintains his decision was essentially governed by a concern for the long-term effects on the association.

"I definitely did take the financial aspect on board and it was a consideration. The effect that the announcement of the Government funding had was to essentially clarify the issue. It was comforting to learn that, as Sean McCague said, the grant put us on secure ground. With that, it was possible to go through the decision-making process on the merits of the motions alone."

Meanwhile, the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, yesterday delivered an explanatory note to Cabinet relating the dynamics of the Government negotiations with the GAA. A spokesperson for the Department said it was not envisaged the Minister would go into detail on the meetings that led to the weekend's timely announcement.