Mr. Liam O'Neill:

There has been tremendous positivity in the last few comments which we welcome. As Deputy Noel Harrington will be aware, there is a view on everything we do, whether at club level or anywhere else. This will probably be known as the most divisive piece of work I have handled so far in my time as president, but actually it is not. The process of change in society and the GAA is such that a minor change made in the Scór competition generated far more heat for me than this issue. That is how life works. Sometimes it is the small issue that creates the difficulty. I have been subjected to no personal criticism, but much of the criticism will come from Cork. We have a suite of decisions and this issue will be discussed up and down the country. That is the way the organisation works. Were we caught out by the reaction? I think politicians should know how things are sometimes handled at the main terrestrial station and, yes, we did not expect it, but that issue has been dealt with it. We expressed our view and will move on and hope to have a good working relationship with it. The interesting thing about the demand from abroad is that we expect continued growth abroad. It would have been inconceivable when the men from Cork started a hurling club in Riyadh almost 30 years ago that we would be in a position to have a county championship in the Middle East, with 40 teams taking part. That is phenomenal growth and, of course, this will drive further growth. A fortnight ago we welcomed a team from the townships of South Africa to various places around the country to play games. On the way back home they won a section of the Dubai Gaelic games tournament. We envisage, based on figures given and the drive to take Gaelic football to the townships, that within a short number of years up to 10,000 native South Africans could be playing Gaelic football. They love the sport. It is in tune with the way they move and they really enjoy it. That is the consequence. If the demand arises, we will handle it.

We have already made a decision that we will not control the growth of the GAA abroad from here. We could not possibly do that. We have established an international development committee and those who live outside Ireland will chart the growth of the GAA outside Ireland for us. When the European county board started in 1999, there were four clubs and it was thought there would be a fifth. There are now more than 70. Within the past two years in Galicia in Spain four clubs started of their own volition; we had nothing to do with them. They want to play Gaelic games. It is interesting to note that the only place in the world where the GAA is officially part of the curriculum is Brittany in France because it saw its value. We do not have it on the curriculum, which is unbelievable. It is part of the curriculum in Brittany because it sees the value of our games. We expect to see continued growth in that area.

TG4 is doing really well. It carries 62 games live there is deferred coverage of 22. It carries the Electric Ireland minor finals, which are back as Gaeilge agus tá áthas an domhain orainn faoi sin. Táimid an-bhuíoch do TG4 as tús áite a thabhairt don teanga i gcónaí. Bímid i gcónaí ag lorg slite chun comhoibriú leo chun an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn.

In regard to fear about the money generated, I understand from where Deputy Helen McEntee is coming. All of this stuff has been going through our minds. This package has not rested lightly on us. Mr. Duffy handled the consultation issue. We consulted our management committee. I also asked the three presidential candidates if they were okay with it. I wanted to make sure we were not doing anything that would damage the organisation. The two of us have more than 30 years experience in the GAA. We love it more than anything else in our lives and would not be in the positions we are in if we did not and we would not do anything that would harm the organisation. We took all factors into consideration. This is probably the most difficult decision making process in which I have ever been involved. I have worried about it every night since and will continue to worry. Until I see it as a success, I will worry about it because our names are associated with it. We did not do it lightly. Sometimes in leadership roles one has to make the hard call. We are in the positions and it fell to us to make the call. As we will forever be associated with it, we hope we have made the right decision. We are not so confident or arrogant to think we have definitely made the right one. We do not know, but we hope it will be proved in the future that we made the brave call and that Gaelic games will continue to flourish, not only on this island but around the world. I made the point that Brian Ború was the "Emperor of the Irish". We look after the Irish at home and abroad. Every Irish person matters to us and we want everyone who wants to be a part of the Gaelic games family - boy, girl, man, woman - wherever they live to enjoy the experience of watching teams to develop our games.