The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has said she does not believe the GAA should receive £60 million for Croke Park unless it is opened up to soccer and rugby. She stressed that the Cabinet had not yet discussed the issue.
Speaking in Donegal yesterday, where she was announcing more than 200 new jobs, she made it clear that the basis of the GAA receiving the payment had not been finalised.
"We have to make a Government decision, and that has not been made yet," she said.
Ms Harney returned to work yesterday after being on leave last week because of her father's death. When asked if she was annoyed that the £60 million grant was announced before the Cabinet had discussed the issue, she said she understood that the GAA had made the announcement.
She said there was a lot of support for soccer and rugby and she would like to think these sports would be able to use Croke Park. "If taxpayers' money is to be given, it has to be on that basis," she said.
"I don't think it makes sense that such a large sum of money would be given to an organisation on the basis that they would prevent others from using the facilities," she said.
Ms Harney said it would be a more efficient use of taxpayers' money if others could use Croke Park and it could achieve wider objectives, such as encouraging reconciliation.
The Government had been trying for some time to get the GAA to make "certain brave decisions" in relation to Northern Ireland and the British army. "I think we should use what influence we have to encourage new thinking and a more progressive and modern view," she said.
The GAA vote at the weekend had shown that things had changed a lot in Ireland. The proposal to allow other sports to be played in Croke Park failed to get the required two-thirds majority but received 176 votes to 89 against.
"I think the government should play its part as well in encouraging the GAA through the provision of resources to make these resources available to wider use," she said.
Ms Harney also said that if Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn were a member of her party she would take "very fast, decisive action" but she would not tell the Taoiseach how to run his party.
"In relation to somebody who was found by a jury to have encouraged others to evade tax, it wouldn't be appropriate in my view to belong to a parliamentary party or be a member of the Oireachtas representing others."
Ms Harney said it was a matter for the people of Mayo to decide at the next election who should represent them and it was a matter for those who ran political parties to decide the standards in those parties. "In this case that is a matter for the Taoiseach."