Mr. Liam O'Neill:

It is important to point out to Deputy Paudie Coffey that we welcome the opportunity and are delighted to be here. We realise we are not just talking to the committee; we are also talking to a wider audience and some of the questions being answered are welcome. We are happy with the process.

When we say 86% of funds goes back to the organisation, we are not talking about handing cheques to clubs; that is not the way it works. That is not the way the Government works either. It works on projects through which it directs money for the greater good. Everyone benefits from the policy. We have a stadium in almost every county in Ireland and the upkeep cost is huge. We have redevelopment projects. In recent years we have ploughed huge resources into the provision of better facilities for supporters and players. We have ploughed a huge amount of money back into clubs. In the past ten years clubs have done an enormous amount of work for their communities, from which huge benefits have been derived. We have enhanced communities.

We have spent money abroad and not just in Ruislip. We are contributing a fairly substantial figure to the development of the social centre at Gaelic Park in New York. We have already contributed to Canton in Boston. We support facilities in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Cleveland and now have interest shown in Buffalo and Pittsburgh. We will support all of these because that is important to us because people who want to play our games are important to us. We also have two juvenile clubs in New York, Rockland in the north of the city and Shannon Gaels in Queens. To show the power of the games abroad and how people abroad view them, following negotiations with Shannon Gaels, the city borough of Queens has offered a city park. It is like Merrion Square being handed over to a club, which is unbelievable recognition. The city borough recognises what our clubs abroad are doing for children, not only children of parents born in Ireland but also of people who were born in America and their friends and neighbours. They value it.

When I say we plough back the money, we spend a huge amount on player welfare. We do not have an insurance scheme; we have a player injury benefit scheme, in which we invest a huge amount of money. We invest a lot of money also in looking after communities through the community and well-being section headed by Mr. Colin Regan in Croke Park. We have programmes such as the social initiative, the idea for which came from Mr. Martin McAleese and his wife when she was President. The initiative started some years ago and we support it. Every day we meet the old people to whom Deputy Timmy Dooley referred and bring them to our clubs. We share our community centres with them, which we know is important and on which we spend money. In partnership with the HSE, we also have a section on mental well-being. We have an anti-suicide strategy, on which we work with the Department of Health and the HSE. We work with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on child welfare issues. A huge amount of our resources goes back into communities. It is important to acknowledge this.

It is fair to say pay-for-play has been taken off the agenda. We do not view our players as a product; we value them. Any time I speak to juvenile clubs, when I talk about under-age players, people at primary school level, whether we like it – we like it – I say we are in the business of child care. We look after our children well. We cherish them. We cherish all of the family. That is why we are trying as an organisation to wind back the history of the foundation of the organisation to where camogie and ladies’ football were formed separately from us. We want to build one central organisation that will look after the family in the community and treat all young people equally.

We have also made an offer about which Senator Eamon Coghlan is aware. We have centres of excellence around the country. We have identified that there could be a greater benefit from their use during the day when they are not used by us. We have made an offer to Athletics Ireland to build athletics tracks at the centres in collaboration with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We would be willing to do this. We have facilities, in which we have invested a huge amount of resources. We are looking after the wider community in a manner in which the organisation never had an opportunity to do before.