Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both gentlemen for their contributions today and for the work that they do for the organisation. The GAA is a fantastic organisation. A lot of my questions have been asked and the delegation has answered them extremely well.

I come from a very strong GAA family, grew up around it and have seen the work of its fantastic community and what that generates. The only fear that we would have, and Deputies O'Donovan and Harrington have touched on the matter, is that the situation might change. Deputy Dooley read a press release from 2010 which stated that the GAA would not opt for pay-per-view but times have changed. I agree that times change and it is fantastic that the people living abroad have been acknowledged, which was something that needed to be done, but fears remain. An Post attended here before the committee not long ago. On that occasion it talked about installing customer paypoints in Tesco branches which has led to a fear that post offices would disappear but An Post has said that will not happen. Can the GAA say that it will not move away from amateur status in 2017 if, as Deputy Harrington has said, there is a demand? Obviously the GAA depends on volunteers but if its amateur status changed the organisation would become more like the way rugby is now and like darts did when it moved to Sky. Unfortunately, these days sports is more about money.