O'Neill focused on Hurling Development Plan

New GAA president Liam O'Neill has said the implementation of the Hurling Development Plan is one of the key challenges over the next three years.

"We have launched the Hurling Development Plan, now we have to implement it and find new ways of promoting hurling," said the Laois native.

"We have to find innovative ways of promoting hurling and we have to do new things to bring hurling to the top of the agenda."

One of the areas of hurling development which O'Neill is impressed by is the added status which will be given to the Shinty/Hurling Internationals in Ennis this year.

"It has really been beefed up, we are having a cultural weekend in Ennis with activities starting on the Friday.

"There will be traditional concerts. We will have the U-21 match on the Friday night and the senior game will be live on TV here and in Scotland on the Saturday afternoon.

"Again there will be traditional music that night and a festival in Ennis on the Sunday. That's just an example of something that's a spin-off from the hurling plan.

"There's a huge amount of work to do. Hurling needs all the promotion it can get and we'll do our best for the next three years."

O'Neill will also establish a Referees Development Committee to look at new ways of attracting people to take up the whistle.

"Central to the playing of games and promotion of games is the specific area of refereeing and discipline," he added.

"A number of years ago we initiated an in depth review of the playing infraction penalty system and how we might devise and test a new penalty system with a view to improving discipline on the field and making our games more pleasurable to play and entertaining to watch.

"It has been suggested to me that our games could now benefit from revisiting our system of penalties. I am considering establishing a new working group to take a fresh look at this and modify the original proposals to take into account good suggestions which have been advanced recently.

"Refereeing continues to be an area of concern to us all. I will be appointing a new Referees Development Committee.

"They will be asked to investigate new ways of recruiting and training referees. For instance, should we look to recruit retiring players as referees?

"We need to examine the possibility of listing our fouls in Gaelic games into categories that are easily understood. Children who commence playing our games need to be taught the rules and the penalties to be applied for foul play from day one. Our supporters need to understand our rules also."

O'Neill's became the 37th president of the GAA in his native county yesterday. His first official duty as the new GAA President will see him open the new dressing rooms at his club Trumera, just outside Mountrath in Laois at 3.30pm this afternoon.

The principal of Gaelscoil Thromaire explained: "The connection between the club and my school is huge. Anyone who is a member of the club is probably a past pupil of mine. I’m there 31 years and that sort of loyalty to one another has built up over that time and we will have a chance to give expression to that.

“Reluctantly, I will be taking secondment from September 1. I will finish up the school year because it is important to the community. A lot of the people in the hall today were past pupils of mine. It is too close and too important to me to walk way from at this stage.”

The former Leinster chairman and Laois GAA secretary will combine his teaching and GAA presidential roles over the next 10 weeks.

“It will be interesting, I won’t be available for all the usual launches and things like that. We will have to find some other innovative way of doing things until then.

“What we will get between now and the summer is - and it will be an interesting exercise for us all - that those who say the president shouldn't be full-time, we will have 10 weeks to look at it to see if that is possible or not."