Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I speak, an extension is being built onto the trophy cabinet in Cusack Park. We in Westmeath like to get our winning out of the way early in the year and make room for everybody else. We will, hopefully, be there knocking on the doors later in the season also. I agree with what the president said about clubs, the club scene and how important clubs are in rural areas, in particular. I hope that bottom-up emphasis can be maintained. In my opinion and, I believe, of everyone, the club is the beginning and end of the GAA. When there is a bereavement in a family in a rural area, the GAA club will roll in and be involved in parking cars, stewarding etc. The club will rally around that family.

In many rural areas in which foreign national people have come to live in our communities, they are being integrated and naturalised into the community through the GAA club. We are seeing increasing numbers of foreign nationals, people of non-Irish origin, playing on our teams and yet we do not have or hear of, thankfully, any incidents of racism. That is one major plus for how the GAA integrates society, particularly in rural areas.

As the eldest son of a farmer, when we got our school holidays the emphasis for the summer was on saving the hay, the turf and the harvest. There was no social media then and I would not have seen my school friends if I had not been lucky enough to be a member of a GAA family. The tools were dropped and we were brought into town when there was an underage game, the club seniors were playing at the weekend or the county was playing. It meant so much to me to be involved at the time of poorer communications. I would not have seen my school friends from June to September if not for the GAA. That helped to form so many great friendships. We do not want to lose that. I know it will not be lost because the president stated that in his own speech. We cannot, however, forget or take the emphasis from the club. We need to keep the bottom-up approach. I would like the president to address at the end the changes made last year to try to make club fixtures that little bit easier. I refer to the break in April and the bringing forward of the all-Ireland finals in hurling and football. What kind of feedback has there been in that regard? Is it working or does it need to be tweaked more? I ask that because we need to facilitate the club as much as possible.