This is the relevant part of the entry in Fintan Vallely's excellent 'Companion to Irish Traditional Music'.
Comhaltas once did a wonderful job in keeping Irish music alive when, it appeared, nobody else cared. Nowadays, as somebody described, they are an organisation with "a great future behind it".
One of their organisers told me recently, "Comhaltas is going to have to run very fast to keep up with what's going on in Irish music.
Jim Carroll

ENTRY
The organisation has a full-time director general (appointed, not elected - since 1968 this position has been held by Labhrás ÓMurchú) and for many years has had several other key staff: The position of director general is permanent and is not explained or rule-bound in CCE's constitution. The incumbent may also stand for an elected office. Incomes were initially covered by state development funding begun in 1967; since then variously by organisational revenue generated from membership levies, fleadh cheoil and tours proceeds, promotions, grant-aid and fund-raising. CCE's 1999 grant aid of £210,000 came from the government's Irish language budget.
Socio-political interventions.
This democratic political structure has a strong centre whose full-time, waged staff may also be the elected executives of the organisation. Disagreements between these and the 'grass roots' on matters of a broader cultural/political nature have in the past led to internal dispute and resignations. This is no different to what prevails in political parties, but the flexibility of one of the points in CCE's constitution has precipitated political problems in the past: 'development of an environment conducive to the Aims and Objects of the organisation' (Bunreacht, introduction). While this covers the use of the various media, it is also interpreted broadly to include the social/political environment of 'Irish cultural ethos', this incorporating on occasions political ideals and opinions. Thus the organisation caused controversy when in 1971 it cancelled the All-Ireland fleadh as a protest against internment of nationalists in Northern Ireland, and again when it issued statements (and Treoir editorials) taking a stand in the national referendum on abortion in 1983. Director general, Labhras O Murchu, concurrent with his employment by CCE, is presently also a senator for the Fianna Fail political party, sharing with C&W promoter Paschal Mooney a portfolio of 'Spokesperson on Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands'. Such a position is not felt by CCE to be compromising of its national cultural ideal-for under his directorship over almost thirty years, CCE has expanded its remit, successfully lobbying for state and other funding.
The only major study of CCE is The Case for Ireland's Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann by Edward O'Henry {Ethnomusicology, vol. 35. no. 1, 1989). CCE's own (c. 1970) publication Comhaltas - CCE (Bliain-Iris, vol. 1, no. 2 gives historical background to personalities.