Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join the Chairman in welcoming all our panellists this morning and in thanking each of them for their very well-prepared and informative presentations. It strikes me - and I can be corrected on this - that boxing and horse sports each have very specific rules applying that are immediately enforceable, and I commend that. Individual performances in these sports are perhaps, from my layperson's perspective, easier to follow, and to identify where an issue may present or may have presented. As a result, my questions will concentrate a little more on the team sports, where we are dealing with a much greater platform. We are talking about a pitch. It is a very big area, and one is not always able to see everything in quite the same focused way that one can in boxing and various horse sport activities. The poor referee, if too much responsibility is placed on one set of shoulders, will also not be able to do so.

I put my hand up as a parent. My young lad would be of a mind, as are many young people wanting to excel in what they undertake, that the helmet is a protection, but it was said to us here last week that it only protects the scalp. The helmet has no protective value in regard to the brain and offers no protection against the potential consequences of a severe impact. They might take up on that point. Is that impressed on players of all ages because it undoubtedly gives that extra degree of self-assurance, bravery and willingness to go the extra distance to put oneself in the gap of danger?

I thank the GAA. Dr. Flannery described well that this is a functional disturbance rather than a structure injury. For a lay person, it is immediately understandable. That simple phrase tells us all about this matter and how difficulty it is to identify.

When talking about those in charge, Dr. Moffat and Mr. Ryan state in their presentation that where a team doctor is present, he should advise the person in charge. Often that might not be a single person. Is it the practice that there is an identified person in charge who makes the call? We do not always have team doctors. Certainly, in juvenile football, it is not always the case. Who is the person in charge? Who, in the absence of a doctor, has that responsibility? In my own ignorance of everything, I learned last week that SCAT 3 was a piece of paper. This has been an informative exchange, even to that extent. With no biomarkers to make a diagnosis, what instruction can one give to that person in charge?

Dr. Moffat and Mr. Ryan state that certain individuals believe the GAA should relax substitution rules. I would think that such is a common sense approach to deal with the issue of having to assess, if it is at all possible to assess definitively, a suspected case of concussion. There are only X substitutions over the course of the game. It puts enormous pressure on the team mentors and players. Without question, in the heat of play there is an unwillingness to come off to let the side down. If there was a relaxation on substitution, that might take some of the pressure off. There might be a greater willingness for compliance in relation to coming off the field of play where a suspected concussion has taken place. I wonder would they elaborate on that. Are there prospects of that being done?

There seems to be a slight difference between the GAA and the IRFU or, in this instance, the Irish Rugby Union players' Association, as to who that person in charge might be. Of course, I get the sense that the referee has a role to play but the GAA presentation seems to place some degree of responsibility on making the call to the person in charge whereas it is clear from the presentation this morning from the rugby fraternity that, "Under no circumstances should ... [team coaches and management] have any influence over the decision of whether to remove a player from the field or not". Am I reading correctly that they believe it is the referee, wholly and solely, who should make the call in this regard? It is open to that interpretation. I invite Mr. Hassanien and Dr. McLoughlin to elaborate on that point. The IRUPA presentation states that the referee has the power to remove players from the field of play whose health he or she believes in is danger, and there seems to be that reliance. On a last point to the rugby representatives, the recognised association between concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy is not conclusive but would Dr. McLoughlin elaborate on that and give us a greater understanding of it?