Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. The GAA is an independent, autonomous sporting organisation. The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, has no role in commercial arrangements between the GAA and broadcasters. While the Minister, Deputy Martin, would be in favour of the public having as much access to sport as possible on a free-to-air basis, the autonomy and independence of all our sporting organisations must be recognised.

Media rights are the most commercially precious assets for sports organisations and they need to be maximised and reinvested in grassroots supports in order for sports to flourish. In that regard, the Minister would like to see the additional revenues the GAA has generated through its deal with Sky Sports filter down to the clubs at grassroots level as much as possible.

Annual Government funding to the GAA is provided by Sport Ireland through its field sports funding programme. This investment is broadly aimed at encouraging and creating more opportunities for young people to participate in Gaelic games across Ireland. In 2020, Sport Ireland has allocated just under €1.6 million to the GAA under this programme. Like all sporting organisations, the GAA has been significantly impacted this year by the various Covid-19 restrictions imposed since March. We are all aware of the impact the loss of ticketing and match day revenue has had on the Gaelic games associations.

On 2 November, the Minister, Deputy Martin, and the Minister with responsibility for sport and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jack Chambers, announced an €85 million funding package for the sports sector. The combined support being provided to the family of Gaelic games, which includes GAA, camogie and ladies Gaelic football, through the Covid-19 scheme is in excess of €15 million. In addition to that, a further €15 million was provided to support the staging of the 2020 GAA, LGFA and camogie championships. The Senator will recall that both the men's and women's Gaelic games championships were threatened by the lack of ticketing income due to the impact of the necessary public health provisions on spectator numbers at matches.

As I stated at the outset, the Minister, Deputy Martin, has no role in respect of the commercial arrangements between sporting organisations and broadcasters. However, the audiovisual media services directive provides that member states may designate sporting and cultural events of major importance to society as free-to-air. The provisions were transposed into Irish legislation in section 162 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, which sets down the statutory process for designating events free-to-air. The events that are designated as being of major importance to society are broadcast as a matter of public interest on a qualifying broadcaster - RTÉ, Virgin Media or TG4 - on a live or deferred basis.

The current list provides for several GAA events to be free-to-air. The All-Ireland senior inter-county football and hurling finals were designated in 2003. The most recent review was finalised in 2017, and approval was received from the European Commission to designate the all-Ireland ladies football and camogie finals as events of major importance in May 2017.

To secure approval from the EU for designation, the event must satisfy at least two of the following four criteria: it must have a special resonance with a country as a whole; must be of cultural importance, especially as a catalyst of cultural identity; must involve the national team in the event concerned if it relates to a competition of international importance; and, finally, if it has traditionally been broadcast on free television commanding large television audiences. Two of those four must be met. Another important metric in addition to those criteria is measured by the EU. The event must have at least 5% of audience share, that is, the share of people who have the possibility to watch the event that actually watch the event.

Under the 2009 Act, the Minister is obliged to review the list of designated events every three years. The purpose of the review is to consider the appropriateness of the current list of designated events and to examine whether to add any events of major importance to society. As part of this process, the Minister, Deputy Martin, will launch a public consultation process in the coming weeks. This consultation will give stakeholders a chance to have their say on the current list, identify other events that could be considered in addition to or removal from the list, and provide a rationale on the way an event meets the criteria for legislation.