Brennan welcomes DRA judgement

GAA President Nickey Brennan has welcomed the DRA's judgement, released last night, which supports the introduction of Government grants for inter-county players.

"There will still be a number of counties who will vote against motion 2 (re: grants) at Congress but they can't vote against it on the basis that it is pay-for-play because the DRA have ruled that the grants aren't pay-for-play," Brennan said.

"I was very confident. We wouldn't have embarked on this (if we didn't think it was possible).

"We made the point all along - both Paraic Duffy did and others - that we hold Rule 11 and the amateur status very dear to our hearts and we were not going to do anything that would undermine that.

"I think the DRA ruling fully supports the angle and the line we are taking there."

Brennan also confirmed that at no stage had he spoken to Mark Conway or other members of the 'Of One Belief' anti-grants group in an official capacity on the issue.

"No (we didn't talk to them). I think the one great thing about the GAA is that we are an organisation that has a lot of different views on many things.

"People held a very strong view in relation to this Government funding scheme and people were using the term pay-for-play. We vehemently disagreed with that and our position has now been vindicated."

He added: "Whatever arguments people make (at Congress) on Saturday, those who continue to be opposed to motion 2. Whatever arguments they can make they'll hardly be able to make arguments that it is pay-for-play anyway when the best legal minds that could be got and the DRA itself, whom we all respect, have said it's not."

However, Brennan was keen to stress that GAA members are entitled to have their say, no matter what their viewpoint.

"People are entitled to their views and we have never said anything derogatory about the Of One Belief group. They are good GAA people, but we were very sincere about how we went about it and we have always had the good of the Association at heart in everything that we have done."

With the Government grants a major issue for the Gaelic Players Association, GPA Chief Executive Dessie Farrell stated in a Sunday newspaper interview that the next thing on his agenda is to make the GPA an official part of the GAA, something which Brennan is not entirely ruling out.

"There are ongoing discussions with the GPA in relation to matters like that," Brennan said.

"It's fair to say we were having discussions on various fronts over the last 12 months but they very much went off the rails, over the last six months, because the whole Government funding scheme came onto the agenda.

"We just didn't have time to do anything else," he admitted.

"If we can get this matter dealt with at Congress it will allow us to move onto other areas and discuss with them (the GPA) and see can there be a more formal relationship.

"But as far as I am concerned we need to get the weekend out of the way first before we can deal with that."

And it is a busy Congress that Brennan and his top level colleagues will face into at the weekend with plenty up for discussion, apart from the grants issue.

"There will be a very important presentation on Friday night outlining how the funds we have got from rugby and soccer will be spent over the next three years," he said.

"It has been presented to Central Council already on more than one occasion but the details of it have failed to filter down to the grassroots level and to club level."

Brennan also believes that the Wicklow motion in favour of teams in Division 4 of the National Football League making a return to the All-Ireland qualifiers will be hotly debated.

"It will come onto the agenda and let it take its course. They (delegates) will decide what they want, as they decided the last time.

"There will be one extra weekend taken off the club programme (if it is passed) but I am happy to let the motion go to Congress.

"It came from a review group that looked at the structure of competitions, it was passed by a previous Congress and now for some reason or another it has dawned on people, over the previous year, that we passed this motion and why did we pass it," added the Kilkenny man.

"I'm happy to let it take its course and whatever the outcome of it is, that's the outcome. I'm not going to pre-judge it or give a particular view on it one way or another."