Mr. Páraic Duffy:

No, we did not offer incentives to the BBC to cover our games. That was a reasonable position to take. As far as the GPA and the issue of pay-for-play is concerned, it is important to make the point in terms of our relationship with Liam - I have handled the GPA in recent years - that one of the very first ordinances in the GPA's constitution is a commitment to the amateur status of the GAA. In recent years in our dealings with it it has been absolutely faithful to it. Pay-for-play is simply not an issue. The GPA is as committed as we are to the amateur status of players and the organisation.

In terms of money going back to clubs, it is very important to state that the overall value of the broadcast packages we have allocated is marginally higher than last time around. The information can be accessed by anybody on a yearly basis in our annual accounts which show the total amount we receive in broadcast revenue. One will be able to see at the end of the current financial year the difference between this year and the last year. It is marginal. We were not driven by financial gain but by having our games seen as easily as possible.

I do not want to have to repeat the point over and over again, but there seems to be an idea that people are losing games that were shown in the past and that if one’s county was playing a match, it was on television and now it will not be. The vast majority of championship games are not shown on television. Less than half of the games are shown. It is not right to say that suddenly everyone has lost the right to watch games live. If one is from Dublin, Kerry or one of the big counties, the games are always on television, but if one is from Monaghan, Laois, Carlow, Fermanagh or Longford, they were probably not shown in the first place. It is important to keep a sense of perspective around this also.