Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our witnesses for their contributions. I come from a GAA background and am lucky to have had the privilege of representing both my club and my county, Mayo. I have seen first hand the importance sport and the GAA have in our lives and the importance of sport in our society. I acknowledge the huge contribution our match officials play. We might not agree with them at all times, but they deserve the utmost respect when carrying out their duties. It was fantastic to see Maggie Farrelly make history in County Cavan three weeks ago by becoming the first female referee to take charge of a senior men's county final. We have seen progression in terms of more females participating in officiating matches, which is important.

I will start with the reporting structures or fear of not reporting abuse and threatening behaviours against match officials. It is important we know the true extent of the problem. To be fair to David Gough, a person and referee for whom I have considerable respect, he may have got the wrong end of the stick when I made reference to the GAA not being immune to this issue. That is an important statement. The GAA should be looked at it in its own right and not in comparison to other sporting organisations. What do we use to track the level of incidents? Mr. Perry talked about a centralised system. Will the GAA and IRFU provide some figures to support the tracking of incidents?