Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Chairman. I welcome the witnesses and note that the session was very informative. At the outset, there are two real issues. One is what happens on a local pitch, basketball court, American football pitch or ice-hockey pitch. Then there is the broader issue of how we collate all our data and statistics to have a long-term strategy on this issue. The biggest problem is to take action without having any detailed research. It may lead to conclusions that may not be correct. This could damage the sport itself. People participating in sport and parents may be anxious about a potential threat to their families or children playing sports. It is important to keep things in perspective and to act with the proper research and science.

I have played a little hurling and football. I never had a concussion. I would try to stay away from the physical activity as much as I could and let the other players get involved in the messy side of it. There is huge pressure on team doctors and the local coach. They are looking into the eyes of the best player and the player is a bit starry-eyed but he might run it off after five minutes. There is huge pressure at local level. At a professional level, it is obviously very different. The local team doctor will have an emotional involvement in the issue as well. He is probably the local everything. That is a key issue. A clinician makes a decision in the interest of the patient. However, he may also be taking into account the interests of the team. I am wondering if that is an area where we might need a stronger focus in terms of giving people the confidence to say concussion is an issue that can have prolonged implications on a person's health. It is not just for five or ten minutes while the player is running around the pitch running off that particular concussion. That is something that happens on a daily basis.

The broader issue raised by the speakers concerns prevention. Nowadays watching an All-Ireland hurling match, it is hard to believe that there was a time 30 people would take to the pitch without a helmet between them and it was permitted. Is there detailed research - perhaps in American football which would be a very high impact contact sport - on helmets? Where do we draw the line? People will argue that impact collisions are equally as high for people wearing helmets.

At what point do we have to drill down through the simplistic assessment that one can avoid concussion by wearing a helmet?

On the longitudinal studies, it is difficult for a small country like Ireland, with a population of just over 4 million, to gather data at the scale required for detailed analysis. I realise there is a considerable throughput at Dr. Farrell's sports clinic but we also need to collaborate internationally. The best way to do this is through medical organisations but it can also be done at governmental level. It does not always work to get governments involved in matters but the populations of countries like Australia, the United States and New Zealand are strongly committed to sports, and could offer opportunities for collaborative approaches. This could also be done at EU level. I imagine that considerable co-operation would be required to complete longitudinal studies because they would be logistically difficult without a commitment at some other level to assist in the studies.

We should be careful to avoid discouraging people from taking up sports when we discuss these issues. One often hears people say, for example, that they do not want their sons to play Rugby or to play in certain positions. Clear training programmes should be developed for coaches and even clinicians at local level. Every Saturday and Sunday in the parishes of this country, injured players are going back onto pitches pretending that they are not seeing stars and the local coach or GP might say they can run it off in three or four minutes. Perhaps sporting organisations need to given the confidence to encourage coaches and GPs to tell players they cannot play when they are concussed.