THE CASE AGAINST: Former player and manager Pat O'Neill says if there's any attention paid to the views of the grassroots,  splitting the county team cannot go ahead

This  has been knocking around for a while. I remember going out to the offices of South Dublin County Council in Tallaght after one of the All-Ireland finals either in 1994 or '95. The chair of the council made quite a long speech, I thought, about looking forward to the day when south Dublin would have its own team. I was standing about 10 feet away saying to myself: "Whoah. That's a long way off."

While there seems to have been a reasonable consultative process between the SRC and Dublin GAA figures, it's hard to disagree with the view of the Dublin populace at large that this is not a good idea. Tribalism is what holds support for the GAA together. In what is still an amateur sport, it's not financial concerns or even success that drive this support. It's tribalism.

When asked about amalgamating smaller, less populous counties for the purposes of competition, Peter Quinn (chairman of the SRC) said the feeling within those counties was very strongly opposed to that loss of county identity. The feeling in Dublin, in my view, would be no less opposed to that loss of identity. I think an Evening Herald poll during the week indicated something extraordinary like 92 per cent of Dubliners opposed to breaking up the county team.

Minister Michael Smith on Questions and Answers made special mention of the Dublin supporters who came to Thurles during the summer. That support is always there. I would have reservations about the viability of the north-south division as a substitute form of identity.

The argument on population isn't straightforward. Competition from other sports has always been a lot stronger in Dublin so percentage penetration has never been high. Even among those playing Gaelic games there's a huge population at club level either not eligible or not willing to declare for Dublin. In general I'd say there's more GAA members in Cork than here.

There's also a problem at the other end of the scale with Dubliners moving out to dormitory areas in surrounding counties. This is going to start benefiting those counties quite soon. I'd say it already is in Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, certainly at underage and development level.

There may be room for some administrative experimentation within the county. The redrawing of boundaries would make more sense along the lines of the restructured county councils. Somebody obviously worked them out on the basis of the logistics of local government. I can't imagine GAA logistics differing that much.

Assuming there was devolution to four such separate entities there'd still be a need for an overall body. It needn't be very big but you'd need some type of CEO and secretariat with overall responsibility, because the potential for conflict would be there. The problems facing the GAA require personnel and finance and that is recognised by the SRC. But I've no doubt that if the Dublin County Board was given those resources it would be well able to run the administrative side of it competently.

There is an argument that two county teams would stop the situation where playing at that level is denied to players. That's probably true but is equally valid in counties like Cork and Kerry in football, Galway to judge by the depth of their panel, and Tipperary in hurling.

I would be very concerned that while we're waiting for all the development work to make an impact, Dublin as a whole will be missing out on the advantages of exposure a high-profile county team generates. A friend of mine in Foxrock told me that even out there, when Dublin are going well you'd see kids wearing the Arnotts jersey. You might see only a few but they'd be there. It's an important promotional aid.

I'm not sure about the catchment area cap on clubs either. It's ironic that the sense of community the SRC is keen to promote is most in evidence in the big clubs in Dublin, Kilmacud, Sylvesters, Na Fianna, St Brigid's, etc. They have become community centres and often offer multi-sport activity, which keeps entire families involved in the club structure. Their size and resources mean they function much better.

There are other issues I would have addressed. The two vital age groups for the GAA are early on, five, six, seven, when they start playing and learning the motor skills. And then 16-21 when a lot of them leave the games permanently. Exposure is important to the first group. My own belief is that there's no reason why Dublin shouldn't play Meath, Kerry, Cork and many others in decent competitive fixtures every year. There should be a set system of matches as proposed originally by the FDC (Football Development Committee).

For the other age group I'd scrap minor and under-21 levels and move to under-19. Minor comes at a time when players are under academic pressure with public exams. Once they leave for college, and something like 80 per cent go on to third level, they rarely enough make the first teams so I feel there'd be an interest in playing at a representative level. With the average age of inter-county players dropping there's less and less need for under-21.

I don't know how the SRC proposals will fare. But if there's any attention paid to the views of the grassroots in Dublin, splitting the county team can't go ahead.

• Dr Pat O'Neill has won All-Irelands with Dublin as a player and manager.

He was a member of the Football Development Committee.