Taoiseach offers fresh hope of earlier GAA return

Sport is to be looked at in a revised 'Living with Covid' plan

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin in his office at Government Buildings. Photograph Moya Nolan

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has raised hopes that inter-county GAA activity could resume before the beginning of April.

Last night, the GAA confirmed to its units that inter-county football and hurling has lost its elite status as per the Covid restrictions and therefore was no longer an exemption at Level 5.

The GAA had already indefinitely suspended the return of inter-county training from January 15 but were informed by Government officials earlier this week that counties would not be allowed to convene anyway.

The GAA’s Covid-19 advisory group believes inter-county training is unlikely to resume until after Easter at the earliest. However, Martin offered more optimism in an interview on Morning Ireland this morning.

“In the context of the revising of the (Living with Covid) plan, we will look at sport and look at inter-county GAA,” Martin said of the plan due to be released the week after next. 

“I thought it worked well last year, the inter-county GAA situation, but it was always timed to end at the end of the year and so we will look at it afresh.

“We think inter-county sport made a difference both in soccer (League of Ireland) and in GAA in terms of the mental health of people and in terms of quality of life.” 

Asked if the suspension of inter-county GAA is determined by Covid cases, which are incidentally lower now than when games took place in October, Martin said: “We want to keep activity levels low in society more generally in terms of mobility and the potential for the spread of the disease.

“Close contact testing has come back in the last week and the positive rate among close contacts is at 22%. Prior to this wave, it was around 10 or 11% so that gives an illustration of this variant and its impact.

“Hospitalisation, even though the numbers of people in hospital is coming down, is still over 20% of the peak last April, so we have to keep these figures in context as well slowly move out of the very stringent restrictions that we currently have in place.”