Brennan fends off questions on GPA grants issue

GAA President Nickey Brennan tried to stop any questions being asked about the GAA/GPA Government grants issue, at a press conference at Croke Park today.

The Kilkenny man was speaking at a press conference to formally announce Paraic Duffy as the GAA's new Director General. Brennan felt that the grants issue would detract from the importance of Duffy's appointment.

"I just want to make it clear that in relation to the current discussions which are taking place between the GAA, the GPA and the Department of Sport and the Sports Council, that those discussions are at a delicate stage and we are working hard behind the scenes," Brennan said.

"In tandem with the GPA and the other parties involved we will be saying nothing at this point in time. We have kept our powder on it pretty dry up until now and I want to reiterate that we will stay that way and anything we will say will be whatever is in the public domain.

"We remain very focussed on resolving the issue, so don't ask us any questions on it today because we will politely have to tell you that we won't be offering a comment on it."

Later in the press conference, RTE Gaelic Games Correspondent Brian Carthy posed a question to Duffy in relation to the issue of Government grants but the GAA President interjected.

However, speaking to reporters afterwards, Duffy had no problems talking about the proposed grants to inter-county players.

He said: "The immediate challenge for me is to see a resolution of the GPA grants issue. I have been working on that for the past few weeks and if that was off the table it would make life an awful lot easier. That's the immediate challenge.

"I'm very hopeful that the issue can be resolved and I think that there is genuine goodwill on all sides. All parties involved want to get this settled and nobody wants a strike.

"I don't believe that the GPA want a strike, we certainly don't want a strike so we are all working very hard to resolve it but it's not easy."