GAA management committee to have 40% female representation from next year

GENDER BALANCE: Ard Stiúrthóir of the GAA Tom Ryan makes a speech discussing motion 9, regarding the associations policy to maintain gender balance in the membership of the Central Council Management Comittee, during the GAA Special Congress. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

The GAA’s management committee (Coiste Bainisti) will have 40% female representation from next year following a vote at Special Congress earlier today.

Fulfilling a stipulation by the Government who have threatened to cut funding if sports organisations’ governing bodies don’t attain gender balance, 78.5% of delegates endorsed the motion.

It means from Congress next February, a gender quota will be applied to Coiste Bainisti. To achieve that, the size of management committee will change in size over the next three years – 21 members in 2024, 19 members in ’25 and 16 in ’26. From 2026, the director general will not have a vote.

In explaining the motion, GAA director general Tom Ryan admitted the proposal would likely not be put forward were the Government not insisting on it. He also said he was not unsympathetic to people who claimed the GAA were being forced to do it, although he noted that the organisation was “under pressure” and under scrutiny.

Ryan, who highlighted that the GAA receive between €15 million and €16m in state funding per annum, argued that it didn’t matter if other sports organisations were not meeting their gender balance responsibilities.

Proposing the motion, Limerick Central Council delegate Paul Foley said the GAA had to show leadership and to not pass it would be a dereliction of duty.

Antrim, Clare, Galway, Offaly and New York were among the delegates who spoke in favour of the recommendation as did GAA president Seán Kelly who maintained not voting it into rule would “send out all the wrong signals”.

Wexford chairman Micheál Martin said he believed Ryan addressed the concerns many people at grassroots had about the motion. Noting games and development funding received by the GAA, Martin added the money received from the Government should increase. "I don't