Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Dia is Muire don uachtarán agus fearaim céad míle fáilte roimhe agus dá chlann ar an lá stairiúil, bródúil seo. Comhghairdeas leis. It is great to have a big GAA family in the Chamber. The visitors in the Gallery nearly have a team among themselves.

I grew up playing camogie and I am a better and happier person as a result. It toughens you up. You have to work as a team and get over things. You do not sweat the bruises; you move on and keep your eye on the prize. As well as being hugely important in my own life, the GAA plays an important role in every village, town and city in Ireland. That is why we must expect high standards at every level, whether in regard to equality, sustainability or respect. Mr. McCarthy mentioned that there is a lot of abuse of volunteers and referees. The GAA is powerful and strong and it is very important that it gets this right. The president is the man to make the improvements that are needed. It is great to have him on board.

I am very proud of Michael Cusack, who came from Carran. My father was involved in founding the Michael Cusack Centre, which is thriving. He did not hear a word of English until he was 11 years old, which is phenomenal and shows how much Irish we had i gContae an Chláir fadó, fadó suas go dtí na 1920idí, ceapaim.

I welcome the GAA's Green Club programme, which offers a brilliant toolkit. I do not know whether all the clubs know about it. Everybody should be aware that this amazing toolkit is available. I saw it when I met Pádraig Ó Céidigh with whom I spoke about the greening of the GAA. Croke Park is doing a lot of good work in that area. I have also met the new secretary in Clare, Deirdre Murphy, who is the first female GAA rúnaí in the county's history. I am meeting her again next week to walk the grounds of Cusack Park and do an audit. We want to see how the stadium can save money and reduce waste on water, transport, electricity and rubbish. Sadly, the truth is always seen through the eyes of a child. I recently took a seven-year-old to his first hurling match. He was astounded by the amount of rubbish that had been dropped and left on the ground when everybody had left.There were a lot of bottles and cans and that is why it is great that in February we will have the 20 cent can and bottle return scheme. It will be coming to everywhere and I will be talking to Deirdre and others about it to encourage people to look at getting return banks into the big GAA grounds because the drinks, cans and plastic bottles are a big element. I think we are using 3 million a day in Ireland. The GAA attracts huge crowds, as the uachtarán said, and that means thirsty people drinking a lot of water, Coca-Cola or whatever, so we need to look into that. I am also going to bring ecologists to the Inagh-Kilnamona hurling club in County Clare to look at increasing biodiversity around its grounds as well.

Much can be done that is low cost and no cost, but I wanted to highlighted a few of the great things the association has listed on its website around funding, because people are always afraid about the grant. They ask where the grant is. We are getting addicted to grants now. If there is not a grant they will not do it, but there are lots of things people can do cheaply. They can organise car pooling for nothing. They can organise bringing in only reusable bottles instead of plastic water bottles. There are different things that cost nothing we can do as clubs. I will name a few of them. There is the community climate action programme strand 1, with funding provided by local authorities to support projects to build low-carbon, sustainable communities. There are loads of community grants GAA clubs are eligible for. They are eligible to have a charge point installed at the club, which I was telling them all to apply for. There is a solar panel grant for GAA clubs as well. If a club gets a battery, it can use that for the flood lights. The community water development fund is also a great one. Later I am bringing forward a Private Members' motion to abolish the connection fee of €2,300 for a bottle refill station in clubs or communities. If that is passed, I hope it will be something we can look at as well.

I am looking forward to working more with the GAA on the greening of it. A lot done and loads more to do. Comhghairdeas arís.