THERE WAS irony in some of the squabbling at the Burlington Hotel on Saturday. While GAA delegates argued about how quickly or slowly it would be appropriate to accept proposals for the reform of congress, the depressingly obvious evidence was that the event has become a farce in terms of decision making.

So nondescript were the morning and afternoon sessions that Dublin's petulant dithering about what action to take after the failure of their appeals to Friday's Central Council meeting hung over Saturday like a cloud.

Of the 27 motions tabled for Saturday, 12 were discussed and only four passed. The lack of preparedness of delegates was again transparent as the same few personalities made largely negative but decisive contributions to most of the debates, while the bulk of those in the hall voted against proposals as an instinct rather than as a conviction.

Some 13 motions were either withdrawn or ruled out of order. Seven of the defeated motions failed to attract a third of the votes. Why does the top table bother to allow these motions onto the floor if they are going to bully them off again or - even more bizarrely - rule them out of order some weeks after the congress report has been printed?

There were two issues of substance for discussion at the weekend: amateurism and reforming the workings of congress. Both had been the subject of recent subcommittee reports. Admittedly, the amateur status sub committee reported only last week but its provisions were largely encapsulated in two motions from Kilkenny and Clare.

Rather than discuss the motions, some delegates claimed they hadn't seen the report, despite the fact that the motions had been in circulation for nearly a month.

The question of congress, however, has been hanging around for longer and if, for instance, the Clare suggestion that the matter be put back until next year's gathering had been accepted, the reformed congress couldn't have met until 1999.

The proposed reforms have been in circulation in one form or another for over a year. Yet when it was put to the meeting that county board secretaries had been circulated with the report, those who responded denied that this had been the case.

Eventually, the issue was referred to a special congress where it can be considered along with the amateur status report. Incoming president Joe McDonagh said at his press conference on Saturday that he expected the special congress to be held in late May or early June.

The four accepted motions concerned the continuing plight of Crossmaglen Rangers' pitch occupation by the British army, a technical adjustment to the Irish language version of the rules on registration and eligibility rules for playing, in America.