Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Several high-profile GAA games have been put behind the paywall and there was consternation. We had a long meeting about it here. As an Oireachtas member, I am very disappointed about this and also about cashless entrance to matches. I wrote to Mr. McKenna twice on behalf of elderly constituents who paid all their lives but who could not get anybody to book a ticket for them online, and I never even got an acknowledgement. Some were clergymen. It is just not acceptable. Hawk-Eye even broke down, so the representatives know how bad the broadband is. It is not their fault. In this regard, I accept that much of the responsibility lies with us here. It is disastrous. There are people texting people in America to know what is happening in a match because their own reception is frozen. It is awful. At the same time, the GAA seems to drive on regardless. It could not even keep Hawk-Eye functioning properly in Croke Park. It knows how bad the systems can be. This was ill-judged and ill-advised.

Not taking cash is an issue. An 82-year-old gentleman in my parish went to a club game in the next parish last Saturday night but was not allowed in and had to sit in the car. My God almighty, it is just despicable that the GAA would treat people like this. It was a joy to watch the man hurling in the past. I was a boy and he was a man. The matter was resolved only when a man who works with him arrived and paid for him by card. Money in your pocket feels like dirt. This beggars belief. It shows outrageous contempt from both RTÉ and the GAA for ordinary people who cut the grass, washed the jerseys, brought us all to matches, raised funds and did everything else. The most horrible aspect of all this is that the good people who stood at the gates for decades were all tarred with the same brush on the basis of the allegation that money was not being returned. We know where the money is going missing in this country. It is at corporate level and it is not because of people standing at gates in the rain and everything else. That is all I am asking about. I will give Mr. Ryan time-----