A row has developed between incoming GAA president Seán Kelly and one of the GAA's most influential committees. It centres on whether delegates to Central Council should be subject to the same five-year term limit that applies to other office holders.

That restriction, recommended by the Strategic Review Committee (SRC), was one of the few progressive proposals accepted by last October's special congress. But it emerged over the weekend that the rules drafting committee, established to enact such changes as are accepted by congresses, has ruled that the five-year provision does not extend to delegates to Central Council and provincial councils.

The committee is technically correct, as Rule 48 specifically distinguishes officers by exhaustively listing their offices and making separate reference to representatives and delegates.

At last Saturday's Central Council meeting, the GAA's director general, Liam Mulvihill, announced the view of the rules drafting committee.

President-elect Kelly, who takes office in two months, strongly disagreed with the finding, and has reiterated this view.

"I said at the weekend that I thought this was outlandish and that it was quite obvious that the motion was intended for all office holders."

Dublin delegate to Central Council Gerry Brady is a member of the rules drafting committee and defends the interpretation by the spirit as well as the letter of the rule.

"There is a clear distinction between officers and delegates and everyone knew that at the special congress. If they (the SRC) had said that Central Council delegates were covered the motion wouldn't have been passed."

It could also be pointed out that the motion at special congress referred to officers and that the SRC's intention for Central Council was that it be comprised of county chairmen. Notwithstanding that, the immediate post-congress feeling appeared to be that the five-year restriction would apply to Central Council delegates, albeit that close scrutiny of the Official Guide would have questioned that.

The motion in question was one on which Kelly spoke passionately, and he recalls his understanding of the matter.

"That was the spirit of the motion - that it should apply to all office holders. If it didn't apply to Central Council and provincial council delegates, what would have been the point of it?"

If the provision is to apply to delegates it appears that it will have to be proposed again and debated once more at annual congress.

Another item to emerge from the weekend's Central Council meeting was that the proposed special congress due to be held next autumn to review the championships structure will not now take place.

Any such discussions will now be held over until the annual congress of 2004. This means that the current league and championship structures in football and hurling will continue for another two years rather than one, as originally envisaged.

It has yet to be decided whether the congress that conducts the review will do so with an open agenda or according to the recommendations of a specially appointed sub-committee.

"At the moment the plan would be to have it open," said Kelly, "but it might be a matter for a committee. I'm keeping my options open on that for the moment."

Finally the news that the GAA is soon to have the report of a sub-committee which is investigating alcohol and other drug abuse has intensified speculation that the association's links with Guinness are to be terminated when the company's sponsorship of the hurling championship ends in 2005.

There were calls for such a dissociation at the weekend, when a number of delegates urged the GAA to take a stand on the matter against the social backdrop of increasing alcohol abuse and its often violent consequences.

In any event, there is a feeling within the association that such sponsorships won't survive much longer. Already the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, went on the record within the past 12 months to predict that drink-related sponsorship of sports events will be a thing of the past within five (now four) years.

The issue of clubs who receive endorsement funds from local pubs is also expected to be addressed, but it is not considered as large a problem as one of the GAA's flagship competitions being used as a vehicle to promote alcohol.