taken.

1. The introduction of the mark, as voted upon at Congress last month, will take take place on January 1, 2017.

2. It was agreed to introduce an U17 championship for 2017 to ensure players eligible for that age group will have a competition in that calendar year.

It is envisaged that this competition will be played in July and August on a knock out basis with the final played alongside one of the All-Ireland senior and minor semi-finals.

3. It was also confirmed that the Division I semi-finals in the Allianz Football League will be discontinued next year.

More use is to be made of double weekends during the Allianz Leagues when both football and hurling will be played.

A decision was also taken to play the U21 hurling final earlier in the year, before the All-Ireland senior hurling final.