GAA's Steering Group on Integration to unveil roadmap next week

The Steering Group on Integration (SGI) of the GAA, the Camogie Association and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association will meet next week to launch their vision for unifying the three organisations.

The SGI features three association presidents in the GAA's Larry McCarthy, the Camogie Association's Hilda Breslin and Mícheál Naughton of the LGFA.

It also includes the three directors general - the GAA’s Tom Ryan, Sinéad McNulty from the Camogie Association and the LGFA’s Helen O'Rourke.

Former Irish president Mary McAleese is chair of the SGI, which is project-managed by Mark Dorman, the head of organisational change at the GAA.

The SGI spent much of last year working on research and member engagement, which included the largest membership response to a sports survey in Ireland, with initial findings from the more than 30,000 participants showing that nine out of 10 members "believe integration will be positive for Gaelic games" and seven in 10 believing it will be "very positive".

At the time, McAleese said that feedback sent "a very clear message" on integration between the three Gaelic games bodies.

In addition, there were meetings and consultations with members operating on the 'One Club' model’.

The SGI issued a deadline of February 2024 for the publication of its integration roadmap and that will now be launched next Tuesday morning at Croke Park.

In the past year, a number of observations and concerns about the logistics, length and complexity of the integration process have been raised.

In his annual report to Connacht GAA's convention before Christmas, provincial secretary John Prenty highlighted the massive spend on inter-county teams, while he also warned that when the process to have a fully integrated Gaelic sports