No debate planned on Rule 42

The prospect of Croke Park being opened to other sports appeared even more distant yesterday with the announcement that there would be no debate to amend the relevant Rule 42 at next month's Special Congress of the GAA

It was decided at the GAA Congress last April that the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) report, published the previous January, would be the subject of a Special Congress to be held in Dublin on the weekend of October 25/26th, thus giving counties the time to fully debate and discuss the content of the report promoted as the blueprint for the future of the association.

It was anticipated that the recommendation by the SRC to give Central Council the right to make decisions in relation to the use of Croke Park would become one of the key debates of that Congress in light of the Government's decision on Tuesday not to fund a national stadium, and the request for a "once-off" use of Croke Park as part of the joint Irish-Scottish bid for the 2008 European soccer championships.

But, according to Peter Quinn, who acted as chairman of the SRC, a mandate to further debate Rule 42 was not forthcoming from counties on receipt of the report. It now seems certain no further debate on opening Croke Park to other sports will take place until next year's annual Congress, at the earliest, and more likely much longer down the road.

"It is my understanding that all motions regarding the SRC report for the Special Congress have now been submitted, and the motion on Croke Park is not one of them," said Quinn. "It seems that counties are happy with the vote taken last April that Rule 42 should not be amended at this stage."

Last Friday was the deadline to submit motions to give effect to the recommendations contained in the SRC report.

It was also disclosed yesterday that the controversial SRC recommendation to split Dublin into two for football purposes had also failed to get a motion forwarded to the Special Congress.

The debate on Rule 42 last April was the second time in two years it had been raised at Congress. In both cases the motion was not to open all GAA grounds to other sports, but that future use of Croke Park be devolved to Central Council. In 2001, the motion to amend the rule was only marginally rejected - on the eve the Government announced a £60 million grant towards the redevelopment of the stadium.

In April, however, there was a drop of over 30 per cent in the numbers supporting the change. The motion, proposed by Clare, was defeated 197 to 106, and it was disclosed afterwards that the votes of clubs within some counties were as great as 44-1 and 25-1 against any amendment to Rule 42.

When the SRC report was published in January, there was again a clear recommendation in relation to the use of Croke Park. In chapter eight of the report, regarding the use of GAA grounds, it was stated that the GAA should re-draft Rule 42 so that the right to make decisions in relation to the use of Croke Park be delegated to Central Council, rather than being covered by general rule, but that club and county grounds not be available for uses other than those specified in the current rule.

Though the recommendation again referred only to Croke Park, Quinn admitted yesterday that the continuing lack of support was not surprising.

"We knew from last April that realistically the motion would not get much support," he said. "There are other factors as well, such as the position of the Croke Park residents committee, who have made it clear that they do not want other sports coming into the stadium.

"From an SRC point of view, we were hoping that the recommendations would be adopted in total. But on the matter of Croke Park it was clear last April there was not adequate support at the time and that was unlikely to change in the near future."

Part of the SRC recommendation was the Croke Park pitch should also have proved its stability before the rule was re-drafted, yet according to Quinn this has little bearing on the lack of support to amend Rule 42.

"We still don't know how it would hold up in winter, but considering the bad summer we did have and the games already played there the new pitch seems to be operating alright."

The Gaelic Players' Association (GPA), meanwhile, yesterday reiterated their support for the opening of Croke Park to other sports.