GAA and counterparts still at odds over Croke Park lease details
Croke Park officials have been locked in negotiations with their counterparts in the FAI and IRFU for the past week but no resolution has as yet been forthcoming.
In a statement issued last night the GAA admitted that: “in relation to international rugby and soccer international matches being staged at Croke Park, discussions are ongoing and dialogue will continue over the coming weeks.”
Their soccer and rugby counterparts are keen to swiftly conclude an agreement for the lease of Croke Park for the 28 months that Lansdowne Road will be closed for rebuilding work.
Issues such as the value of the rent to be charged by the GAA, the right of both bodies to use the GAA’s corporate boxes as they wish and the free access to some matches of schoolchildren are believed to be amongst the key aspects of the agreement that remain to be resolved.
The plans for the development of the proposed new Lansdowne Road were lodged with Dublin City Council on Thursday.
A one-year period has been allocated for due process on the planning application. Construction proper, depending on planning, is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2007 and finish in the second quarter of 2009. The existing stadium will be available for matches during 2006.
Meanwhile, Mayo’s top GAA official may be forced to step down because of a conflict of interest.
Mayo County Board Chairman Paddy Naughton was this week elected Vice-President of the Connacht Council and is due to become the province’s President in three years.
The long-serving Knockmore official is commencing his fourth year as Chairman of the Mayo County Board but may now have to relinquish that position.
Connacht Council bye-laws are being examined in the wake of Naughton’s election on Wednesday night, but the initial indications are that they do not permit a vice-president of the Connacht Council to also act as a County Board chairman at the same time.
“The rules are being examined at the moment and a decision will be reached in due course,” said Naughton.
He was re-elected as Mayo County Board Chairman for a fourth year before Christmas but was also nominated to go forward to contest the vice-presidency of the Connacht Council. “There was no guarantee, of course, that I would be successful in the Connacht Council election, so there was no point in not taking the chairman’s position in Mayo before Christmas,” he said.
