Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 January 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Shane CassellsShane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a brief comment. The last line of the letter asks that this committee investigates this matter. The Chairman has pointed out that it is a letter to the newspapers to which we have been cc'd. I do not want to overstate the matter, but I want to comment because it has been published. It states that we should remember that the taxpayer has funded the GAA over many years, with many millions of euro received from the Exchequer. Any cent of money received by an Cumann Lúthchleas Gael from the Exchequer is accounted for. The issues pertaining to Galway GAA are issues pertaining to internal GAA issues concerning ticketing and credit cards and are, as the Galway GAA chairman has stated, damning. The issue of public moneys paid to the GAA are accounted to at the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport in terms of revenue or capital, and every cent received from the Exchequer is utilised to the maximum for the benefit of local communities throughout this country. The GAA provides a focal point for many communities, not just in a sporting sense but also in a community sense. Any negative inference that could be drawn from that letter, or any attempt to conflate issues, is wrong in the extreme.

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