Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many politicians have been expressing opinions and showing an interest in the business of the GAA in these Houses over the past week. To all those expressing opinions and asking that games be shown free to air and that GAAGO go be done away with, may I ask three questions? First, are they asking that all the GAA games, including the entire hurling and football championships, be shown free to air on RTÉ? If so, how do they expect RTÉ to facilitate it? Second, if it is not the case that they are demanding that all games be shown, but only some, does the RTÉ editorial board now have to come in here on a Tuesday and ask us what games we want live at the weekend? Will we have a vote by pushing the green and red buttons? I would vote for Meath whereas the Cathaoirleach might vote for Cork. Are we seriously suggesting we should tell RTÉ what it should show at the weekend? Why stop there? We might as well tell it what it should show on the news and for entertainment? Third, will we just pass a resolution today that all Cork hurling games should be shown live? That would be the end of the row, and the other 31 counties that make up the GAA would be happy with their lot.

If my comments sound facetious, it is because they are. If you take this to its logical conclusion, you discover the bleating of so many politicians involves calling for every game to be shown, for just the Cork hurling games to be shown or for us to meet here and tell RTÉ Sport what games we would like as politicians. Why is there nobody in here talking about the paywall that operates for the League of Ireland and the FAI? It is electioneering. We have enough serious business in here with housing, health and the economy without lecturing the GAA about what it should be doing. There were two live games last Sunday and two live games last Saturday on TG4, a broadcasting partner. I was at one of them on Saturday and one on Sunday because I go as a fan. There has never been more live GAA on our tellies, and as politicians, as a collective, we should be interested in the business of the country, not the business of the GAA.