Mr. Páraic Duffy:

Absolutely. We tendered, as we have done for years, and the BBC indicated that it would like to show some games in the Ulster championship. Every year the broadcasters receive the same treatment. Sky was the interested party and I will tell the committee about it. I got a text from a person in Ireland who indicated that this was a fantastic development, as his 85 year old father had for years gone to the pub to watch Irish games, but he will now be able to watch them on Sky. There are 11 million households in Britain with access to Sky, which means that people can now watch games in their homes. If we are genuine about spreading the games among the Irish abroad and giving them the best possible chance to watch a game, this is it. We have received positive feedback from the GAA family abroad. If there had been a free-to-air option, we would have taken it, but there was not. Sky told us it wanted to show games.