Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications
Broadcasting Rights: Gaelic Athletic Association
12:20 pm
Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I would like for sure to hear the broader debate but we are here to discuss 14 games that will no longer be free-to-air in Ireland. I accept absolutely the GAA's obligation to ensure that the diaspora is looked after but it could have gone ahead with the deal in Australia and with RTE in respect of its digital platform and it would still have had access to the diaspora, to the emigrants and would have resolved exactly the problem Mr O'Neill spoke about, without taking away the 14 games we are talking about. Many things are getting thrown into the mix here but there is a distinction.