Funding at intercounty level will be the key measuring tape for GAA integration plans

Micheál Clifford

AS THE BATTLE for the minds and hearts for an integrated Gaelic Games family raged on the national airwaves on Wednesday afternoon, the GAA found an ally it could have done without.

With Mary McAleese’s parting shot alleging an element within the GAA’s leadership did not want women in decision-making positions still hanging heavy in the air, Tom reached for the phone to ring Cormac Ó hEadhra, in as a sub for Kieran Cuddihy, on RTE Radio 1’s Liveline to set the record straight.

Tom was not surprised by any of it. The women now wanted the training pitch where the lads gathered on an evening to get a bit of badly needed exercise and enjoy some male bonding. Open the training pitch gate, and Tom reckoned that the women would not be happy unless they were allowed to play on the morning of the All-Ireland final, before the men got out on the field to play in theirs.

When Ó hEadhra suggested that Tom’s argument may have long passed the bus stop called paranoia, the presenter was warned not to be wishing for what he might get. It would be only a matter of time before a woman would be wheeled into the Liveline studio to take his job, warned Tom before taking his leave, presumably for a dance at de Valera’s crossroads.

Given the paucity of support for its embattled leadership in Croke Park, there were some who may have confused Tom for the voice of the GAA’s unreasonableness which had stalled the integration process.

The majority, most likely, were just confused – like all of us, including, it would appear, those at the very heart of it.

Mess

What we are certain of is that this is a mess that has been four years in the making, but perhaps that is not a failure of the process, but a reflection on the seismic challenge faced in integrating three out of five of the biggest sporting organisations in the country.

The late Liam O’Neill’s assertion that had the GAA been founded today rather than in 1884, it would have come fully integrated with bells and whistles, is an obvious truth.

But that does not mean that as night follows day, the obvious response is that what time cheated the Gaelic Games family out of can be wished or even negotiated into place.

That is a penny that has surely dropped painfully over the past four years.

That is not to say that it will not happen; McAleese’s resignation may well be the catalyst for that process to accelerate. Twenty-four hours after Tom Ryan on Wednesday morning admitted he could not put a timeline on the process, minister Patrick O’Donovan was suggesting he had elicited a strong indication from the GAA Director General that a framework motion would go before all three sporting organisations in 2027.

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A week might be a long time in politics, but a day passes in the blink of an eye when the need is greatest.

But no matter how much urgency accelerates the process, the issues and concerns that stall it will remain.

Challenge

In a letter last Monday to the integration committee which almost certainly triggered McAleese’s departure, Ryan framed the challenge that remained.

“The three associations come to integration from different starting points, with different structures, resources, capacities and challenges. Recognising those differences is important if integration is to deliver fair and sustainable outcomes.”

And on Wednesday, he insisted there would be no shortcut to delivering those “fair and sustainable outcomes”.

“A key element though will be a phased implementation, I think, not a single big bang,” he told RTÉ.

If you want to distil those words down to a simple line, it is that when integration is delivered, equality will not be a guaranteed central element.

Equality

It begs the obvious question: can you truly deliver integration without equality?

There are so many elements to integration, not least the part that has already proved to work in almost 800 clubs, the one unit model, but where the measuring tape for equality will be most obviously set is in funding at inter-county level.

If truth is the first casualty of war, mathematics tends to be the first casualty of mergers.

This week, Burns asserted that equality could extend to inter-county preparation costs going from €45 million to €90 million in an integrated body, while GPA CEO Tom Parsons counted just €4.5 million in extra costs.

There was an inescapable sense of Burns scribbling out a number on the back of an envelope with a sum of convenience, while the beauty for a lobbying body like the GPA is that the numbers they magic up are likely to bear little relevance to the one which county boards treasurers will not only calculate, but will also have to find the dosh to pay.

Costs

The figure arrived at by the steering committee is the one that mattered most, estimating that there would be an increased cost of €11.5 million in team preparation costs, while mileage was expected to double from €7 million to €14 million, with county boards incurring €12 million of that cost.

Based on last year’s figures, had integration been delivered instantly, inter-county spending would rise to an eye-watering €58 million.

In an association where the inability to curtail team preparation costs remains the biggest challenge, adding to that without having access to any meaningful increased sources of revenue is a core issue for the lack of appetite at county board level for integration.

When equality is measured by the outside world, not least the political one, the tape is set on where the money goes and to whom.

Framework

The other big stumbling block, as articulated by Ryan, has been the structural framework of a merged organisation, but therein lies the key to unlocking this process.

Perhaps the best pathway to integration is to park it for now and go for a model that is more pragmatic and deliverable.

Instead of an integrated body, a federal one offers the space to deliver change that can bring meaningful improvements to the LGFA and Camogie, without asking those bodies to make the ultimate sacrifice of wiping themselves off the face of the earth on the back of a vote.

On the other side, the GAA’s leap into the unknown would instead become a more manageable great stride of good faith, by putting itself in a position where it can allow for the expansion of the Gaelic Games family without consuming it whole.

A federation of the three bodies could allow for equal access to facilities for all, a central budget funded by a percentage of the income from all three bodies, which would allow the GAA as the main contributor, to offer an increased level of financial supports to the LGFA and Camogie Association, which it has already provided in the past in support of those bodies’ player charters.

Structurally, an overarching body, one which would be replicated at county board level, made up by the three organisations would provide governance, but all three would remain in charge of their day-to-day affairs and budgets.

Dividend

Commercially, as a vastly increased body, there would be a potential dividend to be reaped in terms of income while economies of scale could shrink expenditure, all against the backdrop of a marketing behemoth that could transform women’s GAA in terms of its visibility and support levels.

It would avoid a “phased implementation” of an integrated process which will almost certainly come under pressure on “the big bang” delivery of equality, in terms of funding at an elite level, which it is likely to be beyond its reach.

And, above all, it would keep Tom off the phone.