Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Páraic Duffy, Mr. Philip Browne and Mr. John Delaney to the committee today. The pleasure, entertainment, organisation and skills they provide to everybody are fantastic. Local communities owe a large debt to all of the organisations. It is a family and an atmosphere whether one is playing football, managing a team, refereeing, acting as a linesman or selling tickets. It is fantastic. I have been lucky all my life to have played soccer, Gaelic and rugby and in fairness it kept me off the streets and set me on the right path. We all talk about sport and winning trophies, but what these organisations really do is provide a family atmosphere and look after young people and that is fantastic.

I have a set of questions for everyone and then one or two individual questions for each witness. I will not be too long. Can the witnesses clarify their organisations' approach to the treatment of concussion among players? This is the approach filtered down through all areas of the organisation and in particular at underage level. Can the witnesses clarify what policies are in place to allow children with special needs to participate in their sports? Can they clarify what policies are in place to address the issues of mental health among their organisations' members? The win-at-all-costs attitude is still very apparent in sport, in particular at underage level. What measures have the witnesses' organisations taken to remove this attitude among underage teams? Are the child protection measures in place not only robust but religiously enforced at all levels within the organisations?

For the individual questions, I will go to Mr. John Delaney of the FAI first. Mr. Delaney said that every town and village in Ireland benefits from the whole community being involved in sport. In fairness, soccer has been fantastic. The thing I liked was what he said about soccer being focused on social activity, as such. Can he elaborate on that? Obesity is a big issue in this country. As the organisation for the biggest sport in terms of participation in Ireland, what is the FAI doing to combat obesity?

Can Mr. Philip Browne please expand on the point he made that it would be difficult to find suitably qualified female candidates to fill roles in his organisation? Does he feel the success of the provinces has had a negative impact on clubs at grassroots level? In fairness, the four provinces are doing fantastically at the moment, but is that success affecting clubs?

Next, I turn to Mr. Páraic Duffy. As a GAA man and a sportsperson, I have concerns about rural areas, especially coming from County Louth where communities are finding it very hard to get teams together. If there are three or four clubs in a parish, the last thing one wants to do is amalgamate them. Does the GAA have any plans going forward to look after rural clubs? In the urban areas, we seem to have the opposite problem with a lot of people participating in clubs. What is the GAA doing about that rural-urban issue? The biggest problem I find being involved in sport is that the most delicate age for people is between 16 and 18. A lot of people decide when they turn 16 to go out socialising instead. What is the GAA doing to keep people involved in sport between the ages of 16 and 18?

To conclude, I cannot emphasise greatly enough what these three sports have done in my life and the lives of many others. It is a family thing and we should do whatever we can to help. People are talking about homelessness, obesity and everything else at the moment but one thing to note about sport is that it is a fantastic topic of conversation no matter where one goes and no matter if it is soccer, Gaelic or rugby. I cannot emphasise enough the value these organisations give to people. I thank the witnesses for coming in today.