John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will confine my questions to governance, funding and gender quotas, and will start with gender quotas. Based on the presentations, I take it that both organisations have a concern about it. Wearing my sporting hat, I agree with them. They need to create the conditions in which there is equality of opportunity such that male or female does not matter provided the person is good enough. I ask both Mr. Browne and Mr. Duffy if there is any way that the deadlines will be met.

On governance, the GAA requires a two thirds majority, which I know well. Does Mr. Duffy see that as a help for good governance or is it becoming a restriction? In other words, is it holding back change?

Mr. Duffy referred to the rural-urban issue. The GAA has problems in urban areas because of too many numbers and problems in rural areas because it has too few numbers. He spoke about the Government closing post offices and Garda stations. That is certainly an issue for Government. Will the funding structure of the GAA not result in a continuance of this?

I want clarification on this because I am not aware of the answer. Funding came through the Irish Sports Council that was ring-fenced for Dublin GAA about ten or 15 years ago. Is that ring-fenced by the Government or by the GAA? I do not in any suggest that money be taken away from Dublin because the outcomes have been hugely successful for the investment, in other words, it has been value for money. Wearing my sporting hat as well as my political hat, there is a major issue for the GAA down the line unless extra funding is distributed to the weaker counties and the weaker clubs in the counties because otherwise we will perpetuate the problem. Mr. Duffy can perhaps rightly be critical of successive governments over rural policy. However, we do not want to see that in a sporting sense.

I come to Mr. Browne and the IRFU. We will not talk about the Rugby World Cup because that is coming up later. I was delighted to hear his reference to Abbotstown. I have been out there and have seen the magnificent GAA facilities there. What are the IRFU facilities on the site at the moment? What is the potential for rugby there?

We have talked about the fantastic success of the rugby clubs and the international teams. The way Irish rugby has adapted to the professional game has shown the rest of the world how it can be done in that respect. When it is professional at the top level, one of the downsides can be getting volunteers. I would not be aware of it in rugby clubs but it seems to be suffering at the moment.