GAA management committee set for greater gender equality

A restructuring of coiste bainistí, the GAA's management committee, could be signalled at Special Congress this weekend to fulfil gender representation criteria and safeguard statutory funding.

At the start of the year national sports governing bodies were informed by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media that at least 40% of their management level boards must be female by the end of 2023.

Otherwise, the associations would put their government funding in jeopardy.

GAA director general Tom Ryan says that "it is fitting and appropriate" that the motion is coming up and feels it will "prompt fresh thinking and bring new voices" to that level.

At the Special Congress this weekend, motion nine seeks to achieve and maintain a gender balance in the membership of its Management Committee with a minimum of 40% female or male representation.

Currently, three of the management committee’s 19 board members are female which equates to 16%.

Saturday’s motion proposes a three-stage process towards gender balance by initially increasing the size of Coiste Bainistí to 21 members in 2024 of which nine would be female.

It is proposed that from 2027 onwards, a 16-person Coiste Bainistí would include a minimum of seven females.

As a minimum, three of the four provincial representatives, one of the two independent appointees, one of the two representatives of Congress, as well as the LGFA and Camogie representatives must all be women from Congress 2027 onwards.

The proposal is informed by the Voluntary Sporting Governance Code and by Government ambitions for board diversity for sporting national governing bodies.

"This is a novel motion, a new step," Tom Ryan told GAA.ie.

"It will make sure that the membership of our