GAA integration date of 2027 not just a target, insists Breslin

The Camogie Association, GAA and LGFA have set a date for their proposed integration. 

DATE SET: Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Larry McCarthy, Camogie Association President, Hilda Breslin, Steering Committee Chairperson Mary McAleese and Uachtarán Cumann Peil Gael na mBan, Mícheál Naughton at Croke Park in Dublin. Picture: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Camogie Association president Hilda Breslin is confident integration of the organisation with the GAA and Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) will happen by 2027.

The date was revealed at a press conference in Croke Park this morning attended by Breslin, steering group on integration chairperson Mary McAleese, GAA president Larry McCarthy and LGFA president Micheál Naughton.

Although a timeline of objectives wasn’t produced, it is envisaged there will be one president for the new GAA organisation (not on a rotational basis), one Congress, three conferences for each of the sports and possibly one director general.

Under the headings facilities, finance, fixtures, human resources, membership and player welfare, sub groups have been working on the finer details to achieve an integrated organisation.

At the briefing, it was confirmed the proposed amalgamation has the full support of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s ministers Catherine Martin and Thomas Byrne. In recent months, several GAA county chairpersons have expressed concerns about the financial burden associated with bringing the three bodies together.

Heslin said: “Throughout this process the steering group has engaged with Government ministers across multiple departments including meeting directly with ministers and departments. We have received most positive feedback from all of the departments and in particular from minister Catherine Martin and Thomas Byrne.” 

Heslin sounded a positive tone about meeting the goal of 2027, insisting it wasn’t just “a target”, while McAleese, who will remain involved in the process, stated: “This is a very complex process it has taken us 18 months to devise a robust pathway that is capable of integrating these three organisations in a way that is respectful of all of them and gives comfort to all the codes that their future is going to be a very exciting future, a future to look forward to, one that's going to make us all very proud. It is no less than the modernising of Gaelic games.

“We will only begin to know our strength in Gaelic games, I believe, when we have this integrated organisation up and running. And then, watch out, it will be extraordinary.”

McCarthy maintained there will be equality between the three parties. “It'll take us time, it'll take us space, and we need that. But we're well capable of doing it and we're well capable of doing it very, very well.

“By 2027 we will be a different looking organisation. The legal entity will be the GAA and we'll be under that name but we'll be a different Association in terms of the integration of the two other associations.

“There should be no fear on anybody's behalf for any of this at all. There will be parity of esteem and I would argue that the female voice in Irish sport will be amplified very, very well as a consequence of that.

“What will we look like in 2027? Well, we'll have integration at each level of the organisation. So you'll get it at national level, provincial level, county level, and it has started already obviously at club level with the One Club model which will now grow. The One Club will not be the same thing across all, but that is the basis of it.

“There will be one Congress ultimately and there will probably be three conventions which will deal with each of the sports individually. Because trying to get the four sports into one convention in terms of rooms, et cetera, would be extremely difficult.

“There will be one Uachtarán eventually elected at a Congress and there will probably be deputy Presidents as perhaps a roadmap or stop-gap to one President. But the entity at the end of the day will be the GAA. It will be one Association for Gaelic games, one Association for all with a much, much better organisation I would argue.” 

Naughton said the intention is for a great commitment to the One Club Model. “We will build integration on the One Club model. There will be a review of the guidelines of the existing One Club structure and that will take place over the three years. In 2024 additional support and guidance will be provided on how to adopt a One Club model.”