GAA president John Horan has said he is not seeking a meeting with Dr Ronan Glynn, or any conflict, as he revealed he has not received a response from the acting chief medical officer to a personal letter written earlier this week.
The association issued a statement on Tuesday – which Horan admitted has been perceived as "blunt" – in light of new guidelines for sporting activities to protect the public from Covid-19 transmission.
Those include a ban on supporters attending matches for the next two weeks.
A GAA statement on Tuesday read: "Following this evening's unexpected announcement, the GAA invites Dr Ronan Glynn and NPHET to present the empirical evidence which informed the requirement for the association to curtail its activities.
"The association will tonight be issuing an invitation to Dr Glynn to meet with its Covid Advisory Group in this regard without delay.
"The GAA and its members remain at all times committed to protecting public health."
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Speaking on This Week on RTE Radio 1, Horan defended their reaction, and said it was due to 91,000 people playing matches or attending training during the resumption of games, over five million submission to their Covid-19 questionnaire, and running a successful summer camp for children that led to a more emotive response when tougher guidelines were announced five days ago.
He said: "Our membership were taken by surprise (by the new restrictions). It kind of undermined our confidence in our overall response to things with the announcement on Tuesday. We've been working very hard with our Covid committee to keep the operation going on the ground. We're not looking for conflict.
"All we are actually looking for is the data on which the decisions were made. We would like to add that to the data we have been compiling with our Covid committee so we could inform ourselves to make better decisions on the ground and that we, the GAA, are not letting the side down in all of this.
"It has been said the statement was blunt. I have no question in regard to how Dr Ronan Glynn or NPHET are performing or doing their job. They are in a very challenging time, as are we. All we wanted was the data because we were surprised with the decision.
"We are not offering a criticism. People look at the statement and you can always interpret what is put in writing, but really the core of it was could we get the data so we could be better informed.
"Part of the statement as well also alluded to that – we encouraged our members to continue to comply with public health guidelines."
Asked if he had a response to the communication this week, Horan said: "I sent a personal letter to Ronan Glynn on Thursday.
"I haven't (received a response) and we're not looking to personally meet Ronan Glynn or Philip Nolan.
"We are quite happy if someone could just supply us with the data and see where the fall down came."
