Duffy: grants motion won’t affect amateur status

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy has expressed confidence a Central Council motion on the player grants scheme for next month’s Congress will be in compliance with the Association’s amateur status stance.

Explaining that the document will detail how the scheme works and that it will be ready in time for the Central Council meeting on March 17th, Duffy said it would be a clear motion that will ask Congress to support the grants proposal.

“The motion will ask people to look at the agreement and ask is it in compliance with Rule 11,” he said.

“It will be asking Congress to accept the agreement on the basis that it is compliance with Rule 11.

“Congress will make the decision, but I am satisfied that the agreement as will be presented on March 17 is in compliance with Rule 11.”

The ‘Of One Belief’ organisation has been campaigning that any grants to inter-county players would contravene Rule 11 and were yesterday contacted by the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) suggesting Friday March 14 for a reconvened hearing on the issue.

The DRA has also asked ‘Of One Belief’ for written submissions in advance and whether they feel GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell should be invited to appear and be represented at the hearing.

Admitted Duffy: “We would have felt that, once Central Council accepted it at their December meeting, that, that would have been enough. Having said that, people have right to raise concerns. That’s what the GAA is about.

‘‘Everyone is free to put a motion before Congress so we accept that.”

Duffy expressed surprise at the idea of county boards discussing the issue before the final motions are submitted but ‘Of One Belief’ representative Mark Conway has previously complained that there was too little time allotted between the deadline and Congress for the matter to be debated.

Duffy begs to differ, claiming the procedure has been open and transparent and adding that there will be over three weeks after March 17th for the matter to be addressed by county boards throughout the country. The question remains as to what the next step will be for the GAA if Congress should reject the motion supporting the grants scheme. It would obviously be a huge blow for the GPA who threatened strike action on this issue before Christmas.

“If (the motion) is clearly seen to be in compliance with Rule 11, then I would expect it to be passed. If Congress says ‘no, we don’t accept this scheme’, then clearly we have a problem. Where it moves on from there isn’t for me to say.

“There would be a lot of very unhappy players, that’s obvious, but it’s not for me to say where it moves on from there. Central Council already accepted it, so you would expect that Congress would agree with it, but obviously time will tell.”