What are your thoughts on the year just gone?

"I think any review should concentrate on the games. 1998 was outstanding for the football and hurling championships. They were both very competitive and ended in great excitement. Often a good year is spoiled by a bad final. It's unusual to get a good year extending to the later games.

"Football is under the microscope at the moment with the Football Development Committee looking at every aspect of the game - organisation, fixtures and marketing. I expect a fairly comprehensive report in the new year and just as hurling was shaken up by a similar exercise, football will also undergo changes.

"I'm happy the decision of the special hurling congress (last October to renew the championship experiment which allows both provincial finalists in Munster and Leinster enter the All-Ireland) was taken in good time. The longer the hurling experiment is tried, the more it will be accepted.

"There were more elements of dangerous play in hurling this year and more which went unpunished. I think we were taken by surprise by the perception of an explosion of indiscipline. There had been a tendency to clap our backs about how disciplined hurling was."

Plans for the Croke Park redevelopment appear to be back on track. Had the project lost momentum?

"In the last year or year and a half, we sat back on our laurels a bit. We might have pushed ahead more quickly. It's going in the right direction, but there will be a lot of pressure on us in terms of extra work with phases two and three beginning simultaneously."

How confident are you that the International Rules Series will be received as positively in Australia this autumn as it was in Ireland last year?

"I agree the series in Australia will be very important and I wouldn't have preconceived notions about how it will go. Australian officials were extremely positive about it when they were over and they have said that reaction since going home was even more positive, so I can only take it that the reaction was positive over there."

To what extent does the pressure of the modern games demand a separation of inter-county and club activity?

"A good structure at club level is important because inter-county players are a tiny proportion of the total, although they are hugely important for media coverage. It's always a tightrope between suiting inter-county players and providing for the clubs.

"But holding up county championships while the inter-county team is still involved in the All-Ireland can't be justified. We have had discussions with provincial councils about what to do with counties who conduct their affairs that way. It will be dealt with."

How will developments in television technology affect the GAA?

"You have to be excited about developments in digital technology and its capacity to cover extra events. Anyone with a product has to be excited. Going through the figures, the sales of our games compare favourably with other countries' main events and are on a par with Spanish and Italian soccer.

"We're very small in one sense. Our market is so small and there's a lack of competition amongst broadcasters, which means we're probably never going to get the figure for our rights that would be possible in a more open market. But we're very hopeful that the whole trend of opening up the marketplace will be to our benefit."