Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise our national sport, the GAA, and how a percentage of those games are on pay-per-view platforms. We do an awful lot to support the GAA and are all actively involved in it at local level, in particular. To have a scenario whereby some games will only be available on a pay-per-view package, whether it is Sky or whoever, is inappropriate. Ireland is a sporting country. It is so involved in this and to have your county on a package that you would have to go to the local pub to watch, in some cases, makes no logical sense.

I propose a debate about how we fund sport with the Minister of State with responsibility for sport. He should come to the House. We should acknowledge that we do so much to fund these sporting organisations; because of that, these games should be on platforms like RTÉ so everyone can watch them. Unfortunately, if we go down this line, it will become nothing more than an elitist organisation and we will lose the focus of that community spirit which has made it so great over the last century.