Ms Helen O'Rourke:

I thank Senator Cassells for his kind words. In relation to the assets, we have worked closely with the GAA in recent years. We are all very aware that we have something unique in our sport and are very conscious of being in a position to develop it. I suppose where we are coming from with working to a closer alignment is having it work organically because we all have one chance at this. We have one chance of having one association. It will have to work. We are working on a way of getting there organically, with initiatives. Much of our development with young people is done together. We recently announced a player pathway for all codes, male and female, across that.

When I talk about assets, if one looks at the growth in our game and growth in camogie in recent years, there is the same number of GAA pitches around the country. In many of the small parishes, there is still the one field but the numbers have multiplied due to the number of girls and women playing sport there. We are expecting everybody to fit into the same number of pitches and it is not feasible. It does not work.

On the relationship we have with the GAA, we are all GAA members. We are all part of a club. We have our own club and we have our own facilities, but with the continued growth that we expect over the coming years, more facilities are required for the Gaelic games family.