Pint of Bass territory. The heartland of the Taoiseach's constituency with all of its celebrated landmarks.

Kennedy's pub a doorstep away. Fagan's, another favoured Bertie Ahern watering hole, just a few footfalls further on. A two-minute stroll to the lights at Clonliffe Road and on down to Jones's Road where Croke Park bites a chunk out of the skyline.

Here, with an address on Dublin 9's political strip, lies the Gaelic Players Associations' hub of operations.

Three letters on the buzzer in a narrow doorway the only indicator.

Given its location, maybe it wasn't such an imaginative somersault for the leader of the country to start a recent Rattlebag discussion on his personal cultural highlights for 2005 and find Myles Dungan's gentle promptings leading to the GAA and the issue of semi-professionalism.

"They were actually reviewing my book, the GPA section of it, " says chief executive Dessie Farrell with a wry smile, given how Ahern's warm review of Dessie: Tangled Up in Blue ended with the stern warning on the perils of semi-professionalism that captured the following day's headlines. "A disaster" is how he bluntly puts it when asked as to whether the association should embrace any form of professionalism. Farrell is quick to point out that Ahern was not referring to the body's current proposal to provide a tiered annual grant system of between 1,000 and 2,500 to all senior intercounty squads, one that has been supported in principle by the government and the Irish Sports Council.

"I think it's significant that the leader of the country might say that, yet on the other hand there is this move to try and bring about a situation where that won't be necessary if the government step up to the plate, " says Farrell.

"Obviously, the public perception is going to be hugely important in this. I believe if there's foresight and vision, there is no need for this issue to blow up."

Does he feel that those comments will only serve to muddy the waters between the proposal currently on the table, and the complete break from the amateur ethos that pay-for-play would represent?

"I would look at it differently.

I would throw it back in his lap. As leader of the country, and being a very supportive individual to the players' plight and indeed the GPA, he can see the quandary that we're in chasing the government on the issue of financial assistance for what is our fourth year now. Everybody seems to be supportive of the concept yet we can't carry it across the line, so if he feels that strongly about how payfor-play might be of detriment to the GAA, here's an opportunity to do something about it and to row in behind us."

It was former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy who suggested that the GPA move away from the idea of tax breaks for players and concentrate instead on this grant system, with the 3.6m price tag funded by the Irish Exchequer and provided to the GAA via the Irish Sports Council. A meeting between the GPA, GAA president Sean Kelly and Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue is being set up, and on Tuesday the GPA meet John Treacy and the Irish Sports Council with a view to progressing a process that has stalled recently with Treacy stating only this week that "there is still a very long road to travel".

"Now, all of a sudden, in the last couple of weeks, after three years of campaigning, we're beginning to encounter problems, " says Farrell.

"There's no talk of the remuneration of players being a GAA problem, but I'm hearing that, unless the GAA were willing to contribute to the scheme, that it won't be a runner. The cost to the exchequer is not an issue by the way, and the GAA contributing to the scheme was never flagged at any stage in the last three years."

Sean Kelly dismisses that suggestion out of hand.

"That's not a runner at all because that effectively means we are paying players. Either players are entitled to something from the exchequer like other highperformance athletes who are grant-aided or they are not . . . and all the relevant parties have agreed in principle that they are."

Last Sunday, figures obtained by the Sunday Tribune showed that the average spent by county boards on inter-county team expenses is now 518,000, a 55 per cent increase in the space of just three seasons. An accompanying poll of inter-county chairmen showed that 25 per cent felt that team expenses were spiralling out of control and that the majority felt that expenditure was rising to worrying levels, putting an unfair burden on county officials who are, for the most part, voluntary. Roscommon chairman Michael McGuire was the only one of the 29 chairmen canvassed who supported the notion of professionalism being introduced for players, but he wasn't alone in his opinion that the workload and financial pressures are such that key board positions should be made fulltime.

And Farrell actually believes that this should happen, before the issue of semiprofessionalism for players is even considered. "I think county administrators should be professional, should be full-time, compared even to players. I would be fully in favour of that happening. The GAA has been lucky in that the volunteer effort of the GAA community is so immense and has carried them this far but it's not enough to bring it to the next level. The county boards are in dire financial straits and that shouldn't be the case because there is a very marketable product there and there is a lot they could be doing. But if you don't know how to go about doing that, then it's very hard to do. You need to bring in the business acumen, people who can dedicate themselves full time to that job. In counties where that is happening, I think you're seeing a much healthier picture, not just in terms of finances but in terms of the structures put in place."

Tyrone offer just one example, where Dominic McCaughey has recently been appointed as a full-time administrator. "The GAA are in a very, very healthy state at top level, " continues Farrell, "but yet county boards are thrown to the wolves, left to fend for themselves. They're given a pittance in funding, and more importantly, they're not shown or it's not demonstrated to them the expertise in putting deals together, and the ways and means of generating funds."

Was he surprised to see even one chairman profess his support for full-blown professionalism? "I was surprised, particularly in light of what happened to the last chairman who broke ranks a few years back. Danny Harkin was chairman in Donegal, and the upshot of his comments, well, it's safe enough to say he lost his seat the next time around because of those comments.

"It is significant, because if one individual is prepared to state that publicly, there are more harbouring the same idea. And we would have encountered that in our own ranks . . . not too many would have stated that they wanted pay-for-play or semi-professionalism, yet when we conducted a survey in which their identity wasn't made public, 70 per cent supported it."

Sean Kelly's response to that finding in the survey of 680 players, conducted independently by UCD's Centre for Sports Studies, is a simple one. "If a person asks you would you like to get paid, what would you say? Most of the players know it's not a runner at this point in time."

Hence, the GPA's annual grants proposal is seen as an ideal way of ensuring players aren't out of pocket while maintaining the GAA's amateur ethos. "I believe this is a 'get out of jail' card for everybody, " says Farrell. "The money isn't an issue, there's political goodwill there to do something . . . but political goodwill is a lot different to political commitment . . . and the GAA are obviously in favour of it because it takes the issue off the table to an extent."

For how long? "Indefinitely." And if in three months, or six months, there is still no movement on this, is strike action an option?

"At the minute I don't believe we're in a position to fire the gun on that. What I do know is that we definitely don't want to go down that road. Without doubt it's the last resort. Through meaningful discussion and negotiation you can find ways to address this issue. We have been leading the charge on the provision of sports grants, and it's now high time the GAA weigh in and come in behind that push because it could save them an awful lot of headaches down the road."

If it comes to pass, Lower Drumcondra Road might just have a new landmark.