Mr. John Horan:

The lack of fundraising opportunities has created a great pressure on clubs because many of them entered the pandemic with debts, projects on hand and s on. Some clubs became creative and organised virtual bingo and virtual runs. All of that was not necessarily done by the clubs in the context of raising funds for their own needs. Some of them took these on board for charities because charities throughout the country have suffered. The clubs were not selfish and split their efforts and energy.

With my own young lad's team, we got a contact from the club the other day to say that because it does not have an opportunity to raise funds for equipment, it was asking everyone to anonymously put a donation in an envelope if it was within people's power to do so. While there were challenges, there was also creativity on the ground. Some clubs got caught out by not having their lotto competitions online. It was a case of people having to go to a local venue to drop it in and that was obviously a major problem during the lockdown.

Creativity definitely came to the fore on the part of the volunteers. They have done a huge job for us. As was stated, when we got the opportunity to return and attend games for that period, it was embraced with great enthusiasm. There is a pent-up hunger for people to get back involved and to socially integrate. The social integration is nearly every bit as important as the actual playing of the game.