Surely it is now time for the GAA to face reality. Week by week we hear of plans to build a state-of-the-art sports stadium in Dublin and week by week they are shot down or set aside as some other hair-brained scheme is promoted.

At the same time an enormous sum of money is being spent in Dublin, a great deal of it from the National Lottery, in developing Croke Park and there is still no indication whatever that the GAA will allow soccer or rugby to be played on such hallowed turf.

This column makes no apologies for having supported the GAA's position in regard to this matter on grounds of logic and honesty. The organisation has a perfect right to make its own decisions in regard to the use of it grounds but, surely, there should be an open and honest debate on the matter within the GAA. The issue should be on the agenda for every GAA meeting at club, county, provincial, Central Council and annual Congress level.

The GAA prides itself, and rightly so, on being a democratic organisation. It publishes, at all levels, details of its financial affairs which make a mockery of other sporting bodies. If it believes that it can exist in a sporting vacuum it has a right to that belief but it has not, in recent times, ever explained the reasons for that belief to the general public. While I welcomed the National Lottery grant of £20 million to the GAA it generated an enormous amount of antagonistic publicity. This was because the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, TD, dressed up the grant and used it as a political cover-up for the fact that the Budget was basically one which benefited the well-heeled and ignored the less well-off.

In recent weeks the GAA has embarked upon the second phase of the redevelopment of Croke Park and must be wished well. However, it is now high time for the GAA to play its trump card. They should call on the IRFU and FAI to openly express an interest in using Croke Park when it is completed and ask them to make a genuine offer or submission.

There is no logical reason for the development of a new stadium in Dublin, either in Tallaght, the Phoenix Park or elsewhere, while the best stadium in the country (Croke Park) will not be used for more than 10 matches during the year. The GAA's attitude to "other sports" or "foreign sports" is very well understood and has an understandable history. Yet there is no real reason why history should now cloud the GAA's judgment. An announcement from the GAA that it is ready to talk to the FAI and the IRFU on purely commercial terms would create a situation in which speculation about new stadiums would stop.

The GAA would then be in a very strong position to ensure that it was the main player in regard to the staging of big sporting events. The GAA has, of course, sacred (the word is not too strong) commitments to its own games and dates. There is no reason why that sacred commitment could not continue to be respected.

The advantage would be, however, that leasing Croke Park to the IRFU or FAI would generate finance which could be used to support Gaelic football and hurling without interrupting the well-defined schedules of the GAA.

While the work at Croke Park is in progress attention could be given to preparing a pitch which would be suitable for soccer. The pitch, at present, is not in such condition but it would not cost a lot to make it suitable for all field games.

It has been clear for many years now, since the GAA dropped the notorious "foreign games" rule in 1971, that the vast majority of GAA members and supporters would have no problem with rugby or soccer being played at Croke Park. However, the matter might not be as clear-cut in regard to other grounds under the control of the GAA. What is being argued and advocated here is that Croke Park be a unique venue and that the GAA need not throw all of its grounds open to other sports. The situation of Croke Park could be dealt with in isolation.

Such a move would not need a change of rule, nor even a debate at annual Congress. The rule which deals with this situation is quite clear - Rule 42 B: "Grounds controlled by association units shall not be used, or permitted to be used, for horse racing, greyhound racing or for field games other than those sanctioned by the Central Council."

Any logical human being reading that rule would be well within his or her rights in interpreting that rule to say that the Central Council can, if it so decides, allow rugby or soccer to be played at Croke Park or anywhere else within its jurisdiction.

There is no rule to say that rugby or soccer cannot be played on GAA grounds and, as far as I know, there has never been such a rule.

An opportunity now arises for the GAA to make a magnanimous gesture to the other two major sporting bodies in the country and earn both the respect of those bodies and the admiration of an undivided sporting public. In these changing times the GAA should grasp the nettle and in doing so gain many new friends without causing either itself or its supporters the slightest problem.