The Chair of the Oireachtas Sports Committee has said the Camogie Association could face a grilling from TDs if they do not change their “completely archaic” rules on skorts.
Over the weekend, players from Dublin and Killkenny arrived at the Leinster semi-final in shorts, instead of the mandatory skorts in a coordinated protest.
After they were informed the match would have to be postponed, the players returned wearing skorts.
On Newstalk Breakfast, Labour’s Alan Kelly said he would talk to his fellow committee members about bringing the Camogie Association in to testify if they do not change “this ridiculous situation”.
“[It is] completely archaic, I hope it doesn’t come to it,” he said.
“I hope this gets sorted out pretty immediately because I was at two GAA clubs yesterday, two different events - this is the only thing they’re talking about.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
The Tipperary North TD added that the issue is personal to him as he has a 15-year-old daughter for whom “camogie is her life” and believes they are “uncomfortable” and “impractical”.
“Firstly, you spend half the match fixing it because you end up in tussles and then it moves,” he said.
“It impedes you then when you’re striking the ball at times, which actually becomes a safety issue because you end up doing something potentially that [harms] the way in which you strike.”
Camogie players. Picture by: Alamy.comDeputy Kelly continued that when players are given a choice, most of them prefer shorts.
“I was collecting her from training yesterday, the guts of 26, 27 young ladies playing camogie, training hard and not one of them was wearing anything but shorts,” he said.
“And that’s the way it should be.”
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The Camogie Association has put out a statement noting that the issue of skorts was voted on at their most recent Congress and members decided to uphold the status quo.
They added players would have the opportunity to raise the issue again in the future, if they wish.
Deputy Kelly believes there is no reason why the organisation should hide behind procedural matters.
“If one young girl leaves Ireland because of the skort issues, that’s one too many,” he said.
“I think the executive here of the Camogie Association, who do such good work, just really need to look at this.
“What I’m saying here is they should say, look, it’s health and safety [and] commonsense supersedes the fact of what happened at Congress and they’re making an executive decision to allow choice here for people who are playing camogie.
“Because that’s really what should happen.”
Main image: Camogie players. Picture by: Alamy.com
