Court appearances may be a thing of the past!

THE GAA expects the practice of members resorting to the courts for legal redress will be greatly reduced, if not totally eliminated, through the establishment of a central appeals body and an arbitration system based on a 'disputes resolution' code.

Proposals for the adoption of such processes at national level will be put before Congress next month and if accepted are likely to be extended to provincial and county levels.

Recommendations from a high-powered committee chaired by Cork Secretary Frank Murphy were outlined in Croke Park yesterday.

Director-General Liam Mulvihill is a member of the committee, which features former Supreme Court Justice Hugh O'Flaherty, barrister Micheal O'Connell son of Mick O'Connell and Liam Keane, a Meath solicitor.

It's proposed that appeals would only be heard by a Central Appeals Committee, whose decisions would be binding.

Anybody with a grievance in regard to the legality of a decision made or a challenge to procedure would have access to arbitration.

Frank Murphy emphasised that members would be 'obliged' to use the arbitration system. "If they do go to the courts, provision is made in arbitration law where a court would immediately say you have to go to arbitration.

"We are effectively saying that members have a contract to the Association to operate in accordance with the procedures outlined in the rules."

Arbitration was not about the control of games or for overturning a referee's decision, he added.

Liam Mulvihill pointed out that experience showed that disputes in the main related to 'territory' the particular area of a club or county.

"Most sending-offs are fairly clear-cut and it's seldom enough that a player decides to go all the way (to the courts)," he said, insisting that the procedures were all about best practice and enshrining people's rights.

Sean Kelly said that the Management Committee and Central Council were not the ideal forum for hearing appeals, one reason being that they could lead to canvassing.

If approved the Central Appeals Committee will comprise of a chairperson and four members appointed by the Management Committee and four more appointed by Central Council.

It's proposed that the chairman would be the immediate past President for the first year.

The establishment of an arbitration process requires a new rule, altering another ('to basically make it obligatory on members of the Association to use the arbitration system rather than the courts') and the introduction of 'Disputes Resolution Code.'

This would effectively set out the procedures applicable to the operation of the Arbitration system.

"This code prescribes flexible processes which are along the lines of court proceedings but which are adaptable to meet the needs of the parties where, for instance, time is of the essence," added Frank Murphy.

The Arbitration system will be administered by a Secretary 'preferably' someone in the legal profession who will be appointed by Congress.

The tribunals will be drawn from panels of a minimum 15 legal people and a minimum of 15 people who will be Association administrators.

Totally independent of the Association 'vital' in terms of arbitration,' he pointed out the Secretary will appoint the tribunal when a request is received to have a dispute dealt with. The tribunal will comprise three people, one from the legal panel, one from the administrators panel and a third from either panel.

NOTE: In relation to 'unofficial' GAA contacts with other sporting bodies about the opening up of Croke Park, Liam Mulvihill pointed out that he personally has had no contact with the FAI or the IRFU.