GAA to create director of operations role

NEW ROLE: The GAA are to create a new director of operations role to assist director general Tom Ryan. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The GAA are to create a new director of operations role to assist director general Tom Ryan.

The position will involve overseeing the day-to-day running of non-GAA elements of the organisation such as human relations and information technology and ensuring its overall functionality.

Such a move would see the GAA fall in line with the other two major sports codes in Ireland: Gerard Carmody is the IRFU’s chief operations officer answering to chief executive Kevin Potts, while Christina Kenny fills the same role in the FAI and is deputy to David Courell.

The GAA’s former director of finance, Ryan has been director general of the GAA since 2018 and earlier this year was given a five-year extension in the position.

There are currently six directors in GAA – Ryan, Peter McKenna (commercial and stadium), Ger Mulryan (finance), Feargal McGill (club, player and games), Alan Milton (communications), and Shane Flanagan (games and coaching development).

In 2024, there were 15 GAA staff members considered to be part of senior executive team with salaries totalling €2,307,278. That may include GAA president Jarlath Burns who is paid his school principal’s salary during his three years in office.

Including Croke Park staff, there were 258 GAA employees in 2024 between management, county secretaries with a total net payroll of €12.987m.

Meanwhile, Clare GAA are reporting a surplus of over €730,000 ahead of their annual convention on Tuesday evening. Team expenses again surpassed €1.5m even though their hurlers’s championship concluded in Munster as opposed to 2024 when they lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

A surplus of in excess of €730,000 was recorded, close to €285,000 less than their accounting year in 2024. The convention will be Deirdre Murphy’s last as chief operations officer as Ann Marie Moran takes over in January. Chairman Kieran Keating will complete the fifth and final year of his chairmanship in 2026.