News Story

The head of the GAA has described comments made by Dr Mary McAleese, following her resignation as chair of the body tasked to bring about integration, as “regrettable” and “offensive”.

Jarlath Burns took particular issue with Dr McAleese’s remarks about gender issues and the role of women in the GAA, claiming the facts abut gender balance within the organisation are “completely different”.

Dr McAleese stepped down as chairperson of the group overseeing the amalgamation of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), LGFA (Ladies Gaelic Football Association) and the Camogie Association.

She said she does not believe the integration of the three bodies will happen under the current leadership.

Dr McAleese said that changes to agreed timelines, issues with the GAA management committee and her feeling that there were people who were “not entirely happy about the idea of including women in the decision-making” at the top level of Gaelic sports, were holding the integration process back.

Mr Burns told RTÉ’s News At One on Wednesday that the stalling of the full integration is because of financial concerns.

He also said there was a “legitimate fear” that integration could have been voted against at GAA congress if issues about membership and structures were not set out.

He said: “I’m very disappointed about the resignation of Dr McAleese. She’s somebody I have immense respect for. I thought it was wonderful that we had her as chair.

“I thought she did well. I felt that some of the comments which she made yesterday were very regrettable, particularly about the gender issue and about the role of women, because under my presidency we have moved to a 40% gender quota.

“It’s actually gone up to nine out of 19, which is also a 50% female representation on the GAA’s management committee, which is the highest committee in the GAA.

“So, it is disappointing that she made those remarks about the role of women at the highest level in the GAA, considering the facts are actually completely different.

“The GAA management committee that I chair is one of the most wonderfully dynamic, intelligent committees that that we have in the GAA.

“Their job is to support and challenge, and they support and challenge me significantly at every meeting, no more so than the females that are on it.

“Having the 40% gender quota has transformed that committee. We’ve done that under my presidency, and I just hope that, in the fullness of time, Dr McAleese will reflect on that part of her remarks yesterday and maybe clarify them because it is quite offensive to the people who are on that committee.”

Mr Burns denied he has changed his position on integration, saying he is “absolutely committed” to it.

“I want every single girl who plays the game to feel the same way as every boy playing,” he added.

When asked to clarify the GAA’s position that it wants to focus on equity rather than equality in its integration process, he said: “What that means is, it’s mainly at the high performance level, not at club level, not at national level. It’s the high performance county level.

“We actually have a poor record in the GAA of controlling expenditure currently. If we go straight into equality, the 45 million (euro) that we currently spend preparing county teams goes to 90 million. We just simply cannot sustain that.”

Asked whether the GAA was worried that integration would mean that far greater resources would have to be allocated to women’s inter-county teams, Mr Burns said: “Probably, in a nutshell, yes, that’s it.

“We just don’t have the resources currently to be able to provide for that.

“That is not to say that at a later stage, you know, if we were in a situation where we were having similar crowds going to female games as male games that we couldn’t get there.”

Mr Burns added that he will speak to Dr McAleese following her comments, adding that he “feels really sorry for her”.

“We approached her to take us on this journey. She didn’t come to us and say that she wanted to do it, and I’ve said there many times at meetings, ‘Mary, I know this must be really frustrating for you, but please just be patient because we have to get consensus of our members before we do anything’.

“I have the utmost respect for. I think she did really, really well, outstandingly well as a chair. I will miss her personally.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she is “very, very concerned” that the issues stems from costs and resources.

“I’m concerned to hear the language move from equality to equity,” she added.

“I want to understand what exactly does that mean, and I think we need clarity now from the GAA.

“We need to know exactly what all of that means.

“We need all of that language to be deciphered, and we need clarity as to what exactly the position is.

“It’s not good enough to say what we are in favour of integration theoretically, but not in practice, we’re in favour of integration at some point, but not now.

“I just think that falls really, really far short of the expectations of Irish people.”