The question of whether the Gaelic Athletic Association should pay its elite players surfaced once more this week.
It is for the most part a hidden debate, as few are prepared to advocate pay-for-play and the ditching of amateur status although privately many players admit that they would like the opportunity to be professional or even semi-professional.
In terms of strict amateurism the GAA has been drifting for years at this stage. Both the amateur status report of 1997 and the Strategic Review Committee report of 2002 outline areas in which it is permissible for players to earn money connected with sport: media, sponsorship, advertising and so on. The presence of the Gaelic Players Association has also pushed the remuneration agenda - albeit while insisting that it does not support pay-for-play - with proposals for weekly payments to inter-county players in order to compensate them for lost earnings and a lobbying campaign to secure tax credits on the basis of Gaelic games' cultural value to the State.
It is hard to resist the conclusion that the GAA is on the same road travelled in the past by other sports, most recently rugby which ten years ago abandoned amateurism. During that same period the GAA has experienced a commercial revolution with the opening of the new Croke Park, live television broadcasts and major sponsorship deals. The expansion of the summer championships has brought a rise in both revenue and promotional exposure: the elite players have become even more central to the GAA's marketing and earning potential.
There are arguments on both sides. Those opposed to any further relaxation of the rules on payment point out that the GAA could not afford the expense without crippling its obligations to games development and infrastructural investment. Furthermore such a departure would undermine the volunteerism that drives the association. Advocates of change would respond that another indigenous sport, Australian Rules, sustains professionalism in a catchment not notably bigger than Ireland's and that voluntary commitment continues to develop talent in other major sports that are professional.
In truth any move on payment to Gaelic sportspersons is a step into the unknown. Free movement of players could well erode the sense of place and local identity that is such a feature of GAA loyalties. There is no doubt that the Croke Park authorities would like to establish a happy optimum, at which point the GAA could both benefit promotionally and ensure that the demands on county players got no heavier. But the momentum of events suggests that such a resolution is utopian.