Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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Ar dtús ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire Stáit. Gabhaim buíochas leis as ucht an cheist seo a fhreagairt. He is aware of the subject of this Commencement matter. I am sure he is familiar with the level of frustration, anger and upset at the paywall on GAAGO pertaining to a range of matches, not least important matches such as the all-Ireland senior football championship quarter-finals that will take place this Saturday.

Is this not, in essence, an increase to the licence fee by stealth? RTÉ is meant to be the public service broadcaster and these are our national games. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State were not on his phone. I accept that RTÉ cannot show all these games across its two stations but it would be appropriate for it to find other platforms, such as GAAGO, on which to broadcast the matches. What is the reason for the paywall, however? That is the fundamental question. What is the need for that additional cost when people already pay a licence fee?

Other public service broadcasters, such as the BBC in the North, make games available via other platforms such as the iPlayer or the red button. Those watching coverage of the Glastonbury music festival last week could press a button and view concerts from a range of different stages, as well as seeing content from earlier in the day or from historic Glastonbury festivals. That was all available on one platform provided via the licence fee people pay.

This is about fairness and value for money that is already being paid. RTÉ purchased the rights to broadcast the games. Some of them are free to air, while others are pay per view. It is important to remind ourselves that RTÉ is a 50% shareholder of the GAAGO app. It seems there is a nice circular economy going on here. In a week when RTÉ is mired in controversy over the eye-watering salaries of some of its presenters, surely we can agree the Government needs to work to ensure fairness for ordinary punters. They should be able to sit down after a hectic week and enjoy the matches, given that they are already paying for the service and should be entitled to enjoy important games, not least the semi-finals. I do not want to pick a team or declare support for a particular county. I hope County Down wins the Tailteann Cup. Unfortunately, we did not make it to this stage of the championship.

I have no doubt the Minister of State has picked up on the frustration in respect of this issue. I am sure it has been raised with him. He is probably frustrated at this strange anomaly. I accept that not every game can be shown on RTÉ 1 or RTÉ 2 and there may need to be a move to a different platform. This situation is a bit much, however, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis when money is already tight and people's backs are against the wall. Surely the GAA, which is meant to be community-led and rooted for its members, has a responsibility in this regard. The public service broadcaster has been using money in one way but it could potentially be used in another way that would actually provide additional services to viewers, licence fee payers and sports fans.

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate, as I have said in all of my remarks on this issue, that there are commercial issues at work here. I appreciate the remit which the Minister of State and indeed the line Minister have to operate within. I appreciate that the Minister of State has outlined quite a substantial piece of work that needs to be carried out and that we will not resolve the issue in a Commencement matter this morning. I think and hope we can agree on one principle, regardless of protected games, into which I would like to delve a bit more down the line. I do not accept that matches cannot be provided for via another online platform such as GAAGO without the paywall, if there is the will to do that moving forward. There has to be cognisance of the real frustration and the real inequality, I suppose, coming about as a result of this. Some people can see certain games. There does not seem to be any coherence to which games will be behind a paywall and which games will not. Kerry fans have outlined that four of their team's last five games have been behind a paywall. I do not want to get into the minutiae of that. I simply want to make the case that there is a problem here that is being raised with us across the board. I think the complaints are justified complaints. Both the public service broadcaster and a community-led organisation such as the GAA need to work to ensure equity for viewers and audiences right across the island. In making the point that people should be able to watch games regardless of the platform - whether it is on their television, phone or laptop, - I am not saying that they should be able to do so for free or without cost. They are already paying their licence fee to the public service broadcaster, which should provide the broadest possible service in return. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht an freagra.