Mcgill: We accept the decision

process and that will remain and that’s why we’re not in any rush to come back at the moment because we don’t feel it’s safe or responsible.”

Prof Mary Horgan, who doubles up as a member of the GAA’S Covid Advisory Group and NPHET, said she agreed with the Government’s decision while stressing the reopening of schools and the construction sector are the priorities.

The GAA’S Director of Club, Player and Games Administration, Feargal Mcgill, admitted the Association was “surprised” but accepting of the Government’s decision, which means that there will likely be no training or games before the first week of April.

Mcgill said: “The explanation given to us was that Gaelic games because they’re not professional sports weren’t in a position to bubble, as perhaps soccer and rugby are able to do.

“We were working under the assumption that given how successfully we had run off our own Championships, we would have been governed under that exemption still – but that turned out not to be the case.

“People have focused in on the word ‘elite’ and read into it that somehow the Government are suggesting intercounty Gaelic games aren’t elite sports. I don’t think that’s the case at all and that what was really meant by that in the here and now in relation to Covid was that we weren’t able to bubble.

“That’s at a time when we’re having a thousand cases a day and that’s understandable and I get that. There’s a bigger picture here and although it would be easy for us to jump up and down about it, we have to accept that,” he told The Last

Word.