Mr. Tom Ryan:

I completely understand and respect the points Deputy Mattie McGrath is making. He mentioned driving on regardless. There is always a little bit of a contradiction. We want to progress, modernise and run the organisation as befits 2023, but we try our best to make sure that does not mean abandoning the values that the Deputy talks about. To explain, we have not taken cash at a turnstile at a GAA ground since 2013, so it is not a new development. We have other ways in which we want to accommodate the people the Deputy is talking about. Forgive me for saying so but over 300 Centra and SuperValu stores around the country sell tickets for cash. That is an extensive cash sales network. I do not believe there are many other organisations that would have this. We put in place a little arrangement to address the issue raised but we did not publicise it too much for reasons I hope people would understand. There was a little contingency arrangement in place over the course of the Allianz leagues. To be honest, if somebody shows up in the predicament the Deputy mentioned and cannot get into a game, we let him or her in. We are about what the Deputy is talking about.

As an interesting little aside, the total takings from the Allianz league in the last season were in the order of €2 million. Where counties were in the circumstances the Deputy mentioned and took a small bit of cash off people just to let them in, we asked that it be returned to us. The total amount involved was €15,000. As a proportion of the €2 million paid in total to get into games, €15,000 is not that big. However, I do not dismiss for a second what the Deputy is saying.