Mr. Tom Ryan:

I completely agree with Deputy Dillon. It is not a question of relativity or comparisons with other organisations. To the extent there is an issue in the GAA, it is the GAA's problem to solve. Sadly, we are not immune from many of the issues we are discussing today. With regard to the process involved in referees reporting and collating information, if there is a disciplinary issue in a referee's report, he is required to submit that report within 24 hours. At national level, that is done electronically. We have good and fairly robust numbers, electronically, because of a new IT system we have rolled out in the past 18 months or so. That has not yet extended to county level, which is still largely paper based. Reports of local instances of abuse are dealt with by the competition control committees, CCCs, at county level.

In terms of robust statistics, overall, the national statistics are probably more relevant for me to quote and I hope, give a decent indication of scale. Over the course of the past year, we have had towards 1,000 intercounty games. Some 104 players were sent off during those games and three of those were sent off for abuse and those instances resulted in suspensions. In addition, there was one case involving a team official.

I have to admit that speaks to me of under-reporting, for whatever reason, whether it is cultural, or to do with tolerance of individuals or trust in ourselves in terms of how we prosecute them. I cannot point to anything empirical to suggest what the level should have been, but we would all accept there were probably more than three instances of abuse at intercounty GAA matches over the course of the past year. In terms of going forward and the collation of information, the intention is that we continue the roll out of the new Foireann system, which will happen post-Covid. We will be recording disciplinary reports electronically at that stage.