Mr. Tom Ryan:

Of course. A lot of our focus this morning has been on the financial picture, and rightly so, but the cost goes far beyond finances. The social cost of what we have all had to endure in recent months has been very significant and it will take a long, long time to recover. I can give an example from my own family. I was sent a photograph of my father-in-law looking in over a ditch of a wall, sadly, as his two grandchildren were going in to play a county final in Limerick last week. Those kinds of things have a cost to them that we cannot measure in this room.

Deputies Fitzpatrick and Murnane O'Connor talked about club and grassroots activities but what defines our ability to do those is not just financial, it is also the capacity, appetite and ambition of our volunteers. We would have a very real worry that there is a cost to be paid in terms of the pressure that has been on volunteers, club officers and so on over the past few months. It has been unimaginable. They have been trying to make sure their club continues to keep its head above water while also shouldering the burden involved in getting back to playing games safely. That comes at a cost to people, most of whom are doing things in their own spare time and out of the goodness of their hearts. We owe those people an awful lot and that is why I would not like the focus this morning to be predominantly on the financial side of things. From our point of view, the financial aspect is important because that is what keeps us viable and allows us to pursue all of the ambition I am talking about. We only need to be kept safe; that is all we need. We need to be kept safe for the sake of those people and for all of the social reasons mentioned by the Cathaoirleach. They are so important and we should not forget them.