GAA intercounty action allowed to resume from April 19 in Irish government's latest Covid-19 roadmap

The Irish government's latest relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions has paved the way for a return of intercounty GAA action.

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the news in an address to the nation on Tuesday evening.

Senior county hurling and Gaelic football lost its 'elite' status under the guidelines for the first three months of the year, but will now be allowed to return from April 19.

The GAA has been adamant throughout the year that a four-week preseason will be given to players before action is resumed. This would mean that matches would return in mid-May at the earliest.

Subscribe to GAA alerts!

We'll send you push notifications so you'll receive all of the big GAA news!

It remains to be seen whether the association will press ahead with a full programme of competitions in 2021. There has been some speculation in recent weeks that if there is not an adequate amount of time, the National League may be truncated further or even abandoned for the year.

Last week the GAA's top brass briefed members, noting that no decisions have been made yet on which competitions will be taking place.

"The GAA have not decided on what competitions may or may not be facilitated in any revised national fixture programme for 2021," wrote president Larry McCarthy and director general Tom Ryan.

"As we have stated previously, such decisions will be a factor of how much time is ultimately available to us, both for an intercounty season and for the broader participation levels that will be necessary for a meaningful club season at both adult and underage levels."

Return of youth sport

Meanwhile, juvenile training sessions in all sports will also be allowed to resume from April 26. These will be capped in pods of 15.

Socially-distant sports such as tennis and golf can also resume for all ages.

GAA breaking away from an all-island approach

There has been no update on when all contact sport can widely resume. This will be reviewed when the government re-assesses the national situation at the end of April.

With sports allowed to resume under limited restrictions in Northern Ireland from April 12, the GAA decided clubs in the six counties can re-open. However, an intercounty training ban remains in place.

GAA plan to confirm intercounty calendar next week

In correspondence to GAA units, McCarthy and Ryan welcomed the news on Tuesday evening.

We hope to be in a position to confirm the fixture calendar and competition structures for inter county by the end of next week.

"These are hugely welcome developments and allow us finally to begin planning on-field activity for the remainder of 2021," they outlined.

"However, it should also be noted that these dates are conditional and will very much depend on what happens in terms of the overall Covid-19 picture in the coming weeks.

"For that reason, it is more important than ever that no collective training sessions are held between now and the Government indicated return dates. Breaches in this context will not only be dealt with under our own rules but would likely put the broader plan to return to activity in serious jeopardy.

"As you will appreciate, we need to receive further clarity on aspects of what was announced today before finalising our plans for a return to training and ultimately games. We also need to finalise competition structures and dates for the up-coming inter-county season.

"At this point, we can only confirm that senior intercounty teams both north and south are likely to be permitted to return to collective training from Monday, April 19th. We hope to be in a position to confirm the fixture calendar and competition structures for intercounty by the end of next week.

"We also hope to have finalised updated versions of our return to play documents for both inter-county and club activity ahead of the stated dates for resumption north and south of the border."