Ms Helen O'Rourke:

In my opening statement, I mentioned our membership figures in 2007. Between 2007 and 2020, there was a 32% increase. When we started off as an association in 1974, there were no grants available initially for how we were going to build the association and get the finance required to run the initiative and run the game.

It was, therefore, basically built on a compulsory membership structure, which we have every year, including a compulsory injury fund structure. That 32% increase we would have seen would have brought a big difference to our association financially over the years, whereas the Sport Ireland funding has remained static. In those years as well, the country went through a recession where funding for sport was stalled and it was quite limited. We would always be knocking on the door of Sport Ireland seeking to increase our core grant, which has been increased gradually in recent years. It is still not to the level of the participation rates we have as an association, however.

With regard to the championships, we are currently working on dates. What we have been working on, however, is the previous Government announcement on the opening of the adult inter-county teams going back training and getting prepared for national leagues. It is, therefore, getting confirmation we are moving to the next step but there is work going on. We hope that within the next two weeks, we will have that structure and get the announcement we can proceed with championships, etc., over the coming months. That is being worked on behind the scenes with the counties and the opportunity available to play them this year, it being a unique year.

Last year when the pandemic hit, we had to make decisions on the minors. We took the decision that underage competitions had to be stalled. Some of them had gone as far as provincial level in the schools, but as regards national level, everything was done with safety first and it will be the same again this year. If there is an opportunity, and there is permission for our underage teams to go back to inter-county football, of course, we will be looking at running the minor league this coming year.