Gaelic Games Leinster chairman Nicky Brennan believes that the GAA's annual congress structures are "cumbersome" and questions whether the association's supreme governing body is the "best way forward". His comments come just days before this year's congress takes place in Belfast.
Brennan has plenty of authority when addressing the subject - a member of both the GAA's Congress Review Sub-committee, which reported in 1997 and the Strategic Review Committee (SRC), whose report he helped present to last October's special congress in Dublin.
Responding to the charge that congresses have become a poor vehicle for the conduct of important business, he is grimly amused at the memory of that particular weekend when the fruits of 18 months hard deliberation were summarily dismissed.
"I suppose I'd have to agree as one of the unfortunates proposing motions at last October's special congress (on the SRC report). If ever a case was made for changing congress that was it.
"I accept that there were flaws in the presentation and that a few things went wrong. We probably tried to do too much at the one time. That meant that we lost people's attention.
"A number of our proposals meant that people saw their positions under threat and their attitude became purely reactive.
"It's democracy in action, but whether it's the best way forward is open to question.
"The process is cumbersome and complicated. Take the congress clár - and I know it's complicated by the proposed changes on disciplinary matters. A sizeable chunk of people won't understand a lot of what's involved."
The depressing spectacle of poor-quality, ill-informed and unrepresentative debate has become a frequent experience at congress and, in such circumstances, knee-jerk responses to proposals, however well formulated, are standard.
"Often attitudes are formed by some remark that someone reads in the papers," says Brennan, "and a vote stands or falls by the reaction to that remark.
"Then some motions are voted down because people take an opposite view to some aspect of the overall proposal.
"I'd put it down to a number of factors. The age factor is an issue, subject matter is an issue. You get the perennial motions, say calling for bigger allocations of tickets for competing counties and it's up to the county boards to clarify the processes involved in this."
Brennan has been centrally involved in what reforms have been floated in relation to congress. The review committee of six years ago devised the current structure of workshop sessions on Fridays, with rapporteurs presenting a synopsis in general session.
While accepting that this promotes "better interaction" he accepts that there is now a danger that the workshops will turn into "talking shops" unless some means of channelling these discussions into action is found.
More fundamental were the SRC proposals, which proposed that the structure and content of congress should operate on a three-year cycle, dealing with different topics each year and becoming more of a review body with Central Council taking over a lot of the executive decision-making. These reforms received scant consideration last October, but there is optimism that some may yet be revived by Central Council and Management Committee.
Brennan also points out that there are hundreds of motions formulated every year all around the country and only a few can make it as far as the clár, but that many of these proposals end up at Croke Park level anyway.
"It's easy to forget that a good few motions get passed back to Ard Comhairle (Central Council) and Coiste Bainistí (Management Committee) and are processed through these filters without actually being discussed at Congress.
"One thing I'd like to see is a list of decisions taken at the previous congress being printed in the clár together with what has happened to them in the meantime. This would help close the loop for delegates."
Meanwhile, Tipperary make five changes for their NHL game against Kilkenny on Sunday from the side which lost to Cork.
In come Martin Maher, Eamon Corcoran, David Kennedy, Noel Morris and John Carroll.
Out go John Devane, Ritchie Flannery, Aidan Butler, Colin Morrissey and Brian O'Meara, who is injured.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; M Maher, P Maher, B Dunne; E Corcoran, D Kennedy, B Horgan; T Dunne, N Morris; M O'Leary, C Gleeson, J Carroll; E Kelly, G O'Grady, L Corbett.
