Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Within the GAA, boys and girls seem to participate together and then separate at a particular point. Certainly at summer camps and at the early stages there seems to be joint activity. Is there any thought of a greater amalgamation or is that anathema to both organisations? They are using the same facilities in many cases. That would seem like an obvious thing to do.

On governance issues, I am impressed by the 400 organisations overseas. That can be seen in some of the press coverage and things like that. I understand that a club in Ireland is vested in headquarters. What happens with clubs overseas? Is it a similar type of model? Is that unique? Is there a governance issue in that regard? Is that different in other parts of the world? The GAA is very public in terms of its AGM and its accounts, which is very welcome. It means that the scrutiny is almost self-scrutiny, which is very welcome.

Regarding the IRFU, I really enjoyed the win in Chicago; who did not? Mr. Browne talked about skill sets. None of us was expecting the quota announcement. When talking about the skill set, is he talking about women representing women's rugby on the board? What kind of skill set does the IRFU require for the board? We have all been on boards. Very often governance and board-related items do not relate to the experience of, in this case, playing a game, but to the kinds of things that make up good governance. What is the skill set that women would not have given that we have 50% of the intelligence or something like that? I am curious about Mr. Browne's thinking in saying that. I imagine that if there is to be an amalgamation of both, then both genders should be represented on the board in order to develop rugby in general.