Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Leader's neighbours and friends, and particularly her dad, to the House today, and I hope they have a great day. They are neighbours and friends of my own as well, I might add.

Last week, the president of the GAA, Mr. Larry McCarthy, addressed the House and he said, "We need help". He is looking for help from the taxpayer, the Government and Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas.He said there was a lot of pressure on the GAA to provide pitches and facilities for the growing number of people who are playing the game, given the demand on pitches from ladies' and men's clubs, and we had the One Club programme throughout the country. I support the call for the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to come to the House to have a debate on the broadcasting of GAA matches, particularly given what happened last week with GAAGO.

It is a time when we could divert some of the licence fee that is collected the length and breadth of the country to whoever will provide the services to broadcast the GAA into communities. We are giving back to communities, whether it is done by TG4, RTÉ or even the BBC, which televises some of our matches as well. We could have a very good debate in this regard. The people are paying through their licence fee and we are not getting any great value for it, in my view. Here is a way that we can give back to communities. Obviously, the GAA is looking for extra funds. We could have a very good debate in the House in this regard.