Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am actually talking about both the GAA and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association. These decisions are not made in isolation. I am an avid follower of ladies Gaelic games, maybe even more so than the lads. I get significant enjoyment from sport, particularly GAA. It was really disappointing that the women were moved from Billy to Jack at the weekend, first to accommodate a training session for a men's team. I totally get that the men's team need to train and it is their own ground, but I do not think the way the women were treated is good enough. I absolutely think it is horrendous that the girls got on the pitch six minutes before the game was due to start and the referee thought it was okay to just tell them to get on with it. It absolutely was not okay. It is not okay for an organisation that is supposed to be representing these women and encouraging participation in what is the fastest-growing sport in the country to explain away that treatment as if it was nothing, as it did yesterday. It was not nothing. It is a symptom of how women in this country are dismissed at every level.

We started the Order of Business off by discussing how unfair it is that some women cannot access maternity leave. They have a baby and they get no support. They have to send in sick certificates. It is crazy. We are ending the Order of Business by discussing the manifestation of that mindset that thinks it is okay to treat young women who play sport for the love of their county and country in the way they were treated at the weekend. It is not on.