Jarlath Burns

She said she thinks it's in effect blocked.

I've heard nothing from the GA, I've heard nothing from Jarlath Burns, I've heard nothing from any of them that makes me think that they actually, that there's any impetus or momentum behind it.

Well, to

be fair, the DG of the GA said quite specifically that the GA has no role as a male-only organisation.

I'm biased and probably Aisling is too around who we represent and what we want for girls and women to get a case.

Yeah, you mentioned the word equality there and it has been a word that has been brought into this over the last couple of days because now the likes of Jarlath Burns is using the term equity as opposed to equality and saying that he sees equity as a staging post towards equality.

When you hear language like that within the GAA and from the president of the GAA, is that something that worries you? Is it fair to say that we need to have equity before we can get equality? Or do you find that as a little bit of a kick in the can down the road and making excuses for not wanting to bring in equality?

Look, I think it's fudge, it's jargon.

And I think that's very, very alarming.

Now, the president of the GAA, Jarlath Burns, has said this is only a financial thing.

It is nothing more or nothing less than a financial thing.

Do you accept that?

Look, there's probably some merit in it.

Ironically, you know, when Jarlath Burns was out on RTE last night, telling everybody there's nothing to see here, move on.

We're still totally committed to integration.

He was flanked by two women.

Um, some are going in a bit harder, uh, libs and, uh, [chuckles] uh, fibs and tibs, uh, so to speak.

Uh, the GAA has hit back forcibly, uh, at offensive claims of misogyny within the organization made by former president, Mary McAleese.

Its president, Jarlath Burns, has asked her to reflect on her remarks, which he said were offensive to the women who now make up forty percent of the organization's management, uh, committee, a point I made on the show yesterday.

McAleese resigned on Tuesday as chair of the steering group charged with bringing, uh, the three organizations that run Gaelic games, the GAA, the LGFA, and Camogie associations under, uh, one umbrella.

And the GAA and senior people within it, and particularly Mary Coughlan, who is the chair of Donegal GAA, pushing back on some of her remarks, uh, to some extent.

So Tom Ryan this morning said that he did make it clear at the meetings that they were going to look for this pause or this hiatus, whereas Mary McAleese and the, uh, Camogie Association, um, felt that that was not clear to them, that they were clear that there was misgivings around finances and around structures, um, but that the 2027 date, given that it wasn't a...

Like, how Jarlath Burns and Tom Ryan have tried to pose this today is that there was, like, a button that was gonna be pressed and everything would have to be ready.

That was never the case.

I think the steering group probably could have done a better job at figuring out the step between the steering group and then an implementation group, but there was never a sense that it was gonna be press a big red button-

Or the Mayo camogie team has to get the same as the Mayo men's senior football team.

That is not the proposal that anybody has anywhere.

One, Jarlath Burns is on record as saying that there is too much spending anyway at intercounty level, so we need to figure that out at GAA level.

But the, what was on the table was a floor for all teams, and then look at graduated levels based on the level of the team, not based on the gender.

OK, that's when the proposals might be presented, when the merger might take place, this amalgamation.

It's going to take a long time, Jarlath Burns told Rachel English on the News at One today.

Here's more of what he had to say.

Every national committee has significant female representation.

I've given four years and have you four years in and then you start being told you have to wait another five years.

Her integrity has been questioned, I feel.

When Jarlath Burns also said today that when he was asked about the timelines here, he said, I think the timelines actually held us back more than anything else because we seem to be racing towards timelines.

And he then talks about possibly achieving a lot in 2027.

Uh, Sarah, I might just kick things off with yourself here.

It feels that the most important thing that's worth discussion today, in terms of the comments that have been made today, is from GAA president Jarlath Burns.

And he basically went on RTÉ Radio and said the stalling of integration is down to the financial concerns, that for true equality, the 45 million that we invested in intercounty GAA is going to need to be matched with 45 million investment into the LGFA and Camogie Association.

Your thoughts when you heard that from the president of the GAA?

In all the years that I've been involved with teams, we've never spent even remotely close to that.

I don't think we've ever even hit a million in, in some cases, in some years, because the county boards that I've dealt with in Dublin and Cork have been so streamlined in terms of how they use their money.

And I think it's very, uh, naive of Jarlath Burns to suggest that the Ladies' Football Association and the Camogie Association would see us integrating with the GAA as a blank check for us to progress our games.

So first things first, let's get that off the table.