Mayo stand-off fears as action plan due

A STAND-OFF is on the cards in Connacht involving the Mayo County Board and the steering group appointed by the board to oversee a root and branch reorganisation of the GAA within the county.

The Mayo GAA Strategic Action Plan Steering Group has finished its report, which it plans to launch tomorrow night in McHale Park, Castlebar.

Copies of the report were also to be handed out at the Mayo v Kerry game in the National Football League at the same venue the following day.

The steering group presented a copy of the report to the chairman of the county board last week as a courtesy but the board has now invited the group to bring its report before a meeting of its executive committee as it believes some of its recommendations may breach GAA rule.

Attending the executive meeting would mean postponing the launch, but as of yesterday the steering group intended to go ahead with the proposed launch in Castlebar.

Sources in the steering group have sought clarification from the board as to which rules have been breached but they say that full clarification has not been forthcoming apart from one technical issue.

“We feel we’ve done exactly what we were asked to do,” said sources on the steering group.

“Clubs in the county are free to reject the plan if they wish, so because of that, it’s not as if we’re bulldozing it through.

“People might think we are being intransigent about this but we feel that if we delay the launch, then the report will be seen as watered down, even if we didn’t change a syllable in the report.”

County board sources said yesterday that they viewed the report seen last week as a draft rather than the finished article, adding that a press statement clarifying matters is to be issued later today.

The steering group, which was broken into 10 committees with a total of 86 members, had hoped to issue its report in January but the bad weather forced the cancellation of crucial meetings, pushing the publication date into this month.

The group incudes academic Thomas Mitchell, Mary Davis of Special Olympics Ireland, former Mayo footballers Kevin O’Neill and Willie Joe Padden and All-Ireland hurling referee Aodhan McSuibhen.