Bernard Jackman believes it's "understandable" that some Irish women's rugby internationals have turned down contract offers and hopes they remain part of the team.
On Thursday, IRFU performance director David Nucifora confirmed that eight players had decided against signing professional contracts with the union but insisted the door was not closed to those opting to stay amateur.
With a salary scale of €15,000-30,000 plus benefits on offer, some players are in an awkward position as they may not be willing or able to sacrifice more lucrative full-time professions to focus on rugby.
And Jackman, speaking on RTÉ 2fm's Game, empathises.
"This is the start of professionalisation of the women’s game," he said.
"I was lucky enough to be in that first year back at the very start of professional rugby in Ireland. They went into it slowly. Each province had five full-time contracts, which were £25,000 a year. The rest of the players were on part-time contracts, which were £7,500 plus match fees.
"It seems as if it’s going to be a little bit similar [approach from the IRFU] in terms of taking it slowly and trying to find what works best for everybody.
"Our player pool is too small, we can’t afford to lose the players who can’t afford to take those contracts.
"There has to be flexibility. If you’re along your career or you have financial commitments, it’s impossible to drop back to €15,000 if that’s not going to pay the bills, no matter how much you want to be a professional sportsperson.
"Some people are saying 'Why aren't we giving them €50,000 each? The game can’t afford it at the moment but hopefully it will get to a place where it can.
"I understand where they’re at and why those players wouldn’t take that contract because it has to make sense for them.
"But I think the players that haven’t taken these contracts will stay in the game, get their per-diems, get their match fees and continue to play for Ireland."
Despite Ireland still having some way to go to compete with the top women's nations, Jackman is heartened by the progress since a group of prominent figures in Irish women's rugby said they had "lost all trust and confidence in the IRFU" last December.
Jackman said: "I think there’s going to be a lot of negotiation, a lot of compromise and hopefully we can then increase our player pool, increase the fitness and skill-set of everybody, full-time or semi-pro, to drive the game on.
"Because obviously we’re not at the World Cup and there’s a divide between the [fully professional] French and English in the Six Nations and the rest.
"Wales and Scotland have gone down this [mixed professional] model and it’s similar enough in terms of benchmarking.
"It’s going to be hard to get it right but what’s really positive is that now it seems as if it’s on the tips of the tongues of people in the IRFU and there’s a real effort to make it better.
"That’s what was frustrating everybody. It seemed to be just stagnating but now there are things happening.
"Things are starting to change, which is positive."
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