GAA president Seán McCague says that he was unaware of last Friday's meeting between Gaelic Players' Association chairman Dessie Farrell and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. The meeting lasted an hour and dealt with the dissatisfaction of players at the tax breaks proposed for professional sportsmen in the recent Finance Bill.
Asked if he was surprised by the Taoiseach's decision to grant a meeting to what is an unofficial body, McCague said he was not. "Dessie Farrell's probably a constituent of of his and he's entitled to meet constituents to discuss any concerns they might have."
On RTÉ Radio One's Sportscall programme incoming Leinster chairman Nicky Brennan was asked to comment on the meeting and on the GPA campaign for a weekly players' allowance of €127.
"Maybe Bertie is going to give them this €127 a week," he said. "If that's the case, let him do it but I was a little surprised I must say." He said he believed the GAA simply could not afford to pay players at this point in time.
He also qualified his comments to the weekend's Leinster Convention concerning the possibility that development work in Croke Park may not be completed in time for the province's championship matches.
"What I was saying to counties was that it's going to be fairly tight. We're fairly confident that everything's will be okay, but we wanted to alert counties now rather than later on when they may feel we're leaving it too late," he said.
