Croke Park will host the final of a nine-a-side international Gaelic football tournament to tie in with The Gathering.

It seems likely that no teams from Australia will compete in an international Gaelic football and camogie tournament due to take place in Dublin in July as part of The Gathering.

The nine-a-side tournament is being held in Dublin between July 25 and 27, with rounds being held at club venues in Dublin.

The tournament’s final is scheduled for Croke Park – provided the stadium is not required for a championship fixture that day.

Although Australian GAA teams have been invited, it is understood no funding is available to subsidise the cost of attending the event.

According to Gerard Roe, secretary of the Gaelic Football and Hurling Association of Australasia, this is a major stumbling block to the participation of teams from this part of the world.

“I have been told that there is no funding of any type for this from Ireland and would doubt that any teams from Australasia would compete as the cost for a two- to three–day event would be in the vicinity of $5,000 per player,” Roe told the Irish Echo.

However, a separate competition, also part of The Gathering, being held in September may have better prospects of attracting Australian teams.

An international hurling tournament comprising 16 teams is proposed for Galway between September 18 and 21.

Teams from North and South America, Great Britain, continental Europe, Asia and one from Australasia would compete across four divisions in the standard 15-a-side format.

The explicitly international nature of the competition, together with the possibility of playing a 15- rather than nine-a-side format, may make Australian participation more likely in the Galway tournament as opposed to the Dublin one.

But the cost of going to Ireland to be involved in the event may still be a deciding factor.

Again, Roe stressed the need for a subsidy from the GAA in order to be in a position to send a team from Australia.

“The ability to send a team will depend on what sort of financial assistance is provided,” Roe said.

“I am expecting to have an answer on this from Croke Park soon,” he added.

Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar (centre) with Michael Cusacks GAA club secretary Donal O'Leary and chairman Kieran Olwell in Sydney. (Pic: Michael Cusacks/Jamie Fitzsimons)

The Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar has voiced his personal support for emigrant voting rights in Dáil and presidential elections.

Mr Varadkar is in Australia to promote Irish tourism, trade and sport.

The government has established a Constitutional Convention to make non-binding recommendations on seven areas of potential constitutional reform, including the issue of emigrant voting rights for future presidential elections.

The convention, chaired by Concern CEO Tom Arnold, will first examine reducing the presidential term of office to five years and reducing the voting age to 17.

It will subsequently explore giving citizens resident outside Ireland the right to vote in presidential elections at Irish embassies; provision for same-sex marriage; amending the clause on the role of women in the home; increasing women’s participation in politics; and removing the offence of blasphemy from the constitution.

Mr Varadkar outlined his position on the expat vote issue, in an interview with the Irish Echo.

“My own view – and Simon [Coveney] and I actually did a bit of work together on it – is that we would like to extend the franchise for the presidency. We like the idea of him or her being the president of the Irish people and the Irish nation. Therefore we would like to extend voting rights to all Irish citizens,” he said.

He said this was not government policy but “would be a nice thing to do and would be of real value”.

Asked about voting rights for the Dáil – an area not being considered by the convention – he also voiced his support, with provisos.

“In terms of the Dáil, I would favour it for people who are only out of the country for a short period of time – maybe say they’re gone a year or two. But I don’t think people who are gone a long time should vote for our parliament,” he said.

“There’s a simple reason for that. If you reduce it to the ridiculous, what does the Dáil do? It makes the laws and sets the taxes. So the people who vote for the Dáil should be the people who have to obey our laws and pay our taxes.”

He said he would see a stronger case for extending Dáil voting rights to Europeans who are living in Ireland for a long period of time.

He said if Ireland retained the Seanad, there could be a case for emigrant representation there.

Mr Varadkar favours the abolition of the Seanad.

He said there were “mixed views” on emigrant voting within cabinet.

While in Sydney, Mr Varadkar attended a Tourism Ireland event with the organisation’s Chief Executive, Niall Gibbons, and singer Ronan Keating to promote the Gathering.

He also met members of the Michael Cusacks GAA Club last Sunday at a club day in Surry Hills.

The government is targeting an extra 25,000 visitors from Australia next year, as part of the Gathering.

Responding to Gabriel Byrne’s much-publicised criticism of the Gathering as “a scam”, made on an Irish radio programme, the minister said he felt the actor’s issue was more with the “amount of money the government is putting into culture and the level of support that we’re offering the Irish overseas”.

“But it is a tourism-led initiative. The objective is to bring an extra 325,000 visitors into Ireland, generating maybe an extra €200m in revenue and helping to sustain and create a lot of jobs in Ireland,” he said.

Mr Varadkar added: “We don’t make any apologies about that. It isn’t just a tourism marketing wheeze, it is actually much more than that.”

He said “people all over Ireland are getting very enthusiastic about this”.

:: Banking salaries

On the issue of half a million euro salary packages for six executives at the former Anglo Irish Bank, including its Australian Chief Executive, Mike Aynsley, he said people in financial services were paid too much. He said that was an international problem.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan confirmed that six executives at the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation (IBRC), including its Australian Chief Executive Mike Aynsley, are in receipt of packages worth over €500,000.

Mr Aynsley, 54, is a former executive at NAB.

He earns €663,000 a year at IBRC, with that figure broken down into a €500,000 salary, allowances of €38,000 and a pension sum of €125,000.

There are 12 staff at IBRC in receipt of remuneration packages of €300,000-€399,000, 24 on €200,000-€299,000, and 44 on €150,000- €199,000.

The former Fianna Fáil government led by Brian Cowan approved the salary packages.

Mr Varadkar said it was important to make a distinction between people who were brought in from overseas to help Ireland save hundreds of million of euros and those who “were around when things were going wrong and haven’t taken their share of the pain”.

He acknowledged the case for reduced salaries and a full pay review in the banking sector.

President Higgins is visiting Liverpool and Manchester. (Pic: PA)

President Michael D Higgins has defended actor Gabriel Byrne as a fine ambassador for Ireland in the wake of his controversial remarks about The Gathering.

The Hollywood screen star is a “magnificent Irish person” who merely wants the government’s flagship tourism initiative – which he branded a “scam” – to have a deeper connection to the diaspora, said President Higgins.

“I looked at the full transcript of what he said, and what Gabriel was saying was that he wishes very much The Gathering to be a success but he wants it to have depth,” he said.

Speaking during a three-day trip to Liverpool and Manchester, the president said Mr Byrne was a personal friend who had done great work over the years with the Irish film industry.

Furthermore, the former cultural ambassador had brought investment to the country, he said.

“I do hope as well that the reaction to what Gabriel has said is that people are fair to Gabriel,” he said.

“Gabriel Byrne is a magnificent Irish person who has worked for Ireland and worked beyond his own self.

“He is a star but beyond all of that I remember so clearly all he has done as cultural ambassador and how much he has done for Irish film and continues to do so.

“He’s actually making a film in Ireland at the moment and it has brought investment to Ireland.”

As part of President Higgins’ visit to the north west of England, he will be guest at a reception for The Gathering on board the Irish naval ship LE Eithne at Liverpool.

“My own view about it is that The Gathering is a great opportunity for those who have been planning to come to Ireland. If they come in 2013 they will see a very special effort being made, not only in upgrading all of the festivals but with new celebratory aspects of Irish heritage available to them,” he said.

President Higgins said he also hoped the many Irish who will not be able to come home for their own particular reasons and circumstances have their own way of coming together to celebrate their Irishness.

Speaking earlier this month about the tourism initiative, Mr Byrne said people are sick to death of being asked to help out in what they regard as “a scam”.

Kennelly on RTÉ's The Saturday Show on November 10.

Tadhg Kennelly has defended The Gathering initiative, in the wake of critical comments made by actor Gabriel Byrne.

Kennelly, who took part in a recent RTÉ television special to promote the initiative that aired last month, was speaking on the broadcaster’s Saturday Show last weekend.

The Listowel man said schemes such as The Gathering were important in bringing in business to small towns.

Byrne last week described the scheme as “a scam” and said that the bridge between Ireland and its people is broken.

His claims were later rejected by The Gathering’s project director and by the government but they have spurred debate about the project in Ireland and among its diaspora.

Asked for his view on Byrne’s criticism, Kennelly strongly backed the huge tourism push.

“What has changed over the years? Look, we’ve got a great country, we’ve got a lot of tourists that come to the country and we’re hoping they spend money in the country,” said Kennelly.

“We’ve got a lot of people that are from Ireland and just because they leave Ireland it doesn’t mean they leave their heritage behind them. There are a lot of [Irish] people in Australia and I know they’re very proud of where they come from. And I’m the exact same.

“I know in Listowel especially [how it contributes]. The Listowel Races or the Rose of Tralee … what it does for the town … a gathering like that or a week-long festival in Listowel, it keeps the businesses and all the shops going for three or four months because of that stuff,” he said.

“I think it’s a great initiative. And initiatives like these and Bord Fáilte [now known as Fáilte Ireland] are often criticised and I suppose in the current climate when things are very negative or what not.

“That’s his opinion … we’re good at two things in our country. Our tourism is fantastic and we’re good at exporting people. We’ve got so many people around the world, why not tap into that and try to help the economy?” he asked.

The Gathering aims to be the biggest tourism event ever held in Ireland, targeting 325,000 extra visitors and an additional €170m in revenue.

Ireland’s Minister for Tourism, Leo Varadkar, is in Sydney this week in part to promote the initiative.

Gathering supporters have rejected Gabriel Byrne's criticism.

The project director for The Gathering has rejected Gabriel Byrne’s criticism of the tourist initiative.

Jim Miley told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland show he was hopeful Byrne’s comments would not start a backlash.

The Gathering aims to be the biggest tourism event ever held in the country, bringing in 325,000 extra visitors and an additional €170m in revenue.

Byrne, formerly Ireland’s cultural ambassador, told Today FM on Monday: “People are sick to death of being asked to help out in what they regard as a scam.”

“I wish The Gathering the very best of luck but they have to understand that the bridge between the diaspora and the people is broken and I tried to fix that for two years and it’s still broken … Most people don’t give a shit about the diaspora [in Ireland] except to shake them down for a few quid.”

Mr Miley said the actor was  “a man we all know and love, and he has his opinions – they are one man’s opinions”.

He said the scheme had been getting positive feedback on social media.

He told Morning Ireland it would be a mistake to “paint the diaspora as one [cohesive] unit of 70 million-plus people”.

He added that first generation Irish people were different to those who had left for Argentina in the mid–1800s.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said The Gathering is “a very credible, national proposal for 2013 for Irish people and for those who want to be associated with Ireland to come back some time during 2013″.

Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar, who is due to visit Australia next week in part to promote the scheme, said a huge amount of work is being done to connect the Irish overseas.

Gabriel Byrne has said the bridge between Ireland and its diaspora is broken. (Pic: Imagine Ireland/Jeff Lipsky)

The actor Gabriel Byrne has launched a blistering salvo on The Gathering 2013, Ireland’s huge tourism initiative.

Byrne, who has previously served as a cultural ambassador for Ireland in America, was speaking on the Today FM radio programme, The Last Word.

He has described the scheme as “a scam” and said that the bridge between Ireland and its people is broken.

The Gathering Ireland 2013 aims to be the biggest tourism event ever held in the country, bringing in 325,000 extra visitors and an additional €170m in revenue.

Traditional festivals, like a New Year’s Eve Festival to mark the start of the year, will form the spine of celebrations.

“People are sick to death of being asked to help out in what they regard as a scam,” he said