I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, here this morning. We now move to the first Commencement matter, in the name of Senator Tully.

Before I start, may I ask why there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here? I was not notified that there would not be one. This is nothing against the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish; he is here to represent whatever Minister there is. This is very disappointing. This is a very important health issue, yet there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here. The Minister of State is not going to be able to give me a comprehensive answer because it will be a pre-prepared statement. It is very disappointing.

All I can do is give the commitment to bring the Senator's comments back to the Department of Health and the Minister-----

Yes, please.

-----to ask the question. Obviously, the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, will do his best.

I know, and it is nothing against the Minister of State.

I understand that, but I will give the Senator the commitment that we will contact the Department and the Minister's office.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

I wish to raise a couple of cases relating to Cavan General Hospital. Aaron is a 12-year-old boy who was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in severe pain on Monday, 27 April. An ultrasound was carried out and it was determined that he had appendicitis, so he would have keyhole surgery on the Tuesday. On Tuesday morning at 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and a nurse constantly called for a doctor, but no doctor came. Later on Tuesday morning, he was prepped to go to theatre for the operation. He spent all day waiting while fasting and having no water, and he was not brought to theatre until 10.20 p.m.. A 12-year-old spent a whole day without food or water and was in pain.

He had the operation and his parents were told it went fine. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Aaron was very unwell. It was only then that a senior consultant admitted that the appendix had ruptured and that the operation had been much messier than it should have been and they had admitted to. They gave him antibiotics, but the parents were very concerned he would contract sepsis. He remained very unwell in hospital for a few days. He was given a huge cocktail of antibiotics, but it then seemed that the antibiotics were having an adverse effect on his liver.

Aaron was taken off those antibiotics and was discharged on Monday, even though there was still an infection in his body. He had to be rushed back to hospital on Tuesday by ambulance, and to Temple Street on Wednesday, where he had surgery on the Friday due to complications in his bowels with an obstruction. We do not know the reasons for that, but we assume it had something to do with the initial keyhole surgery and how it was much messier than it should have been. Aaron is home now but is still very unwell and his parents are very concerned they are not at the end yet.

Orán is a 20-year-old who was admitted to hospital on 16 September last year while extremely unwell. He spent all night on a trolley in accident and emergency, with no scans and nobody seeing to him. The next day, 17 September, he got an MRI scan and an ultrasound, which showed he had appendicitis and needed keyhole surgery. An operation was performed at 1.30 p.m., but again, he was very unwell. It was only a couple of days later that the hospital admitted the appendix had ruptured in his case, too. He remained very unwell, and on the Friday, his parents were very worried about him, but there was no doctor to be seen until Monday evening. He spent the whole weekend without a doctor.

I also meant to say that, in both cases, a drain was put in and there was a very putrid discharge. Oran ended up having to have another operation on Tuesday and was in the ICU for several days before going back to the ward. He was discharged the following Monday but had to be readmitted on the Thursday, as he was still very unwell. He was eventually transferred to Beaumont a week later. He spent a week in Cavan General Hospital just being managed and then eight days in Beaumont on a cocktail of antibiotics, where they thought they had got him out of bother. However, he ended up back in Beaumont in November, where it turned out that there was a bowel obstruction due to adhesions from the surgery in Cavan. That young man ended up losing out on a semester in college and still has another operation to go to relieve all the issues resulting from the surgery.

This is happening too often. There have been several other cases where people have been left too long and their appendixes have also ruptured. We need to see some inquiries being made into this and a proper investigation of what is going on. Is it a case of staff under-resourcing, incompetence by certain members of staff or a combination of both? We really need the Minister for Health to look into this.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. As she rightly said, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill.

As regards the two issues the Senator raised, I hope that those two young lads will get back to full health. I will ensure that the Minister gets a transcript of what the Senator raised here and I will ask her to reply directly to the Senator on those two issues.

Nobody wants to hear of situations like that but, at the end of the day, we hope they will be okay. I will now read the script I have been given by the Department.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Cavan Monaghan General Hospital is part of the Dublin and North East hospital group. The two sites are 46 km apart and operate as a single hospital with an integrated managerial and clinical governance system, care pathways and support functions. The hospital currently provides services to the population of both counties and surrounding areas. All acute inpatient services are based in Cavan General Hospital. Both hospital sites provide extensive outpatient, theatre and day services, and Cavan General hospital provides 24 hour emergency care.

The HSE has advised that Cavan General Hospital operates in line with national healthcare standards and established clinical governance frameworks. Both the surgical and emergency departments follow protocols, with care delivery guided by national policies, clinical guidance and regular oversight mechanisms. The hospital is subject to ongoing monitoring, audit and quality assurance processes which are designed to maintain high standards of safety and effectiveness. As part of the ongoing quality assurance process, HIQA inspected Cavan Monaghan General Hospital in 2024. The emergency department and four ward areas were assessed during this unannounced inspection. The findings of this inspection were positive, with ten out of 11 standards found to be compliant or substantially compliant.

In Cavan emergency department, trolley numbers have decreased by 20% in the last year. In the same period, waiting times have also reduced. It is important to note these improvements occurred in the context of increased emergency department attendances. Additionally, the waiting list for inpatient and day case procedures in Cavan has reduced by 15% compared with April 2025. Any concerns regarding care or procedures are addressed through established review systems including incident reporting and clinical audit. There has been significant investment in Cavan Monaghan General Hospital in recent years. The combined budget for the hospitals has increased by 5% from €115 million in 2020 to €183 million in 2026. Staffing has increased by 325, an increase of 28%, and bed numbers have increased by 11, a 4.8% increase since 2020.

According to the acute inpatient hospital bed expansion plan, which aims to deliver 4,367 acute hospital inpatient beds by 2031, a total of 97 beds will be delivered at Cavan Monaghan General Hospital by 2028. This includes 23 beds delivered between 2021 and 2024 and 74 beds delivered between 2025 and 2028. The hospital delivers safe and timely access to patients and the community and performs highly in national unscheduled care and emergency department key performance indicators. A new purpose-built emergency department and additional bed capacity received planning permission and started to progress through the development stages in 2025. The provision of a new extension block to the existing hospital front entrance, including a new oncology unit and upgraded pharmacy services, is currently at design stage.

The people of Cavan and I are delighted that we have a general public hospital in our county but we want a hospital we can trust. We want to know that when somebody goes in there for whatever reason, he or she will be cared for in a timely fashion. I have had wonderful experiences in the hospital and there are wonderful staff in there but they are overworked. Hospital management has said that it operates at safe staffing levels and so forth and the Minister of State's response says the same, but that is not the feeling these individuals, their families and many others have when they go into the hospital. They see staff who are rushed off their feet and who do not have time to see to patients properly. It is not fair. It is putting pressure on them and that is when mistakes are made. In this case, mistakes were possibly made and, as I said, we need answers as to what happened here. We also need to ensure it does not continue to happen.

I have become aware of four cases in the last year. There was a young lad in February who was left too long and his appendix ruptured as well, but thankfully he did not seem to have any bowel complications afterwards. Another young woman told me that her colon was perforated when she was getting her appendix removed. There are complications there and the issue is staffing levels. We need more staff to ensure patients are seen to promptly. These families were traumatised. One mother who reached out to me said they could not speak about it for months afterwards because they were so traumatised by what they went through and so worried about their son at the time.

I would appreciate this being brought to the attention of the Minister so that we can get a comprehensive reply to the specific issue raised.

I assure the Senator that I will personally bring this issue to the attention of the Minister and ask her to revert to the Senator on it. Nobody wants to hear of cases like this. At the end of the day, the staff in the health service, as everyone in this House will acknowledge, do tremendous work.

Yes, they do.

In some places they are under pressure and we all know that. Recruitment is a problem as well. It is to be hoped the hospital will be able to get on top of these issues. I will ask the Minister to revert to the Senator on it and I thank her, once again, for raising this matter today.

I reiterate that Cavan Monaghan General Hospital operates in line with the national healthcare standards and established clinical governance frameworks. Both the surgical and emergency departments follow protocols, with care delivery guided by national policies, clinical guidance and regular oversight mechanisms. Patient care is supported by multidisciplinary teams, ensuring treatment decisions are made collaboratively and in accordance with best practice. The hospital is subject to ongoing monitoring, audit and quality assurance processes which are designed to maintain high standards of safety and effectiveness. Any concerns regarding care or procedures are addressed through established review systems, including incident reporting and clinical audit. In this context, it is important to emphasise the hospital's positive inspection report following its last HIQA inspection. In the last year there have also been improvements in waiting times for both emergency patients and those awaiting inpatient procedures. The Government is committed to ongoing investment in service enhancements in the region. Substantial improvements have been put in place, including an uplift in bed numbers, staffing and budgets. Additionally, a new purpose-built emergency department and oncology unit are progressing.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tóg go bog é liom anois. Beidh go leor uimhreacha á liostáil agam. Since being elected to Seanad Éireann, I have been contacted by numerous people from all walks of life expressing their dissatisfaction with the level of public transport available in Tubbercurry in south Sligo. Leaving aside the matter of the full reinstatement of the western rail corridor, which I know the Minister of State, as a west of Ireland man, supports, including bringing it right up to Sligo, the level of public transport offered to Sligo's second town is woeful. I am not exaggerating when I say that. The main service on offer is the Bus Éireann No. 64 Expressway, which connects Derry to Galway, via Donegal, Sligo and Knock Airport. It is a fantastic service and is usually very reliable. It is delivered by professional and really friendly drivers seven times a day. It is supplemented by the 964 bus, operated twice a day by Feda O'Donnell Coaches. There are also two other buses that come once a week but I am not going to get into that now.

The 2022 census shows that Tubbercurry has a population of 2,307 people, which is about 10% of the population of Sligo town. It is considerably larger than the population of Strandhill, Collooney, and Ballisadare, which are the next largest towns. Tubbercurry's population has increased by a staggering 90% since 2002 and over 16% between the census of 2016 and 2022. By way of comparison, there are 31 buses running on the S2 route between Strandhill and Rosses' Point, via Sligo. That route is approximately 20 km long. I live on that route and it is fantastic to have that service. At 34 km, which is only 14 km longer than the S2 route, Sligo to Tubbercurry should be an easy commute on public transport. A large number of people living in Tubbercurry work in Sligo town, but the No. 64 is an intercity bus rather than a commuter bus. A standard Bus Éireann coach seats between 50 and 55 passengers and consequently there are very few seats available for commuters wishing to travel daily between Tubbercurry and Sligo. I point out that this should be a public service obligation, PSO, route. That is what I want and it is the whole point of my Commencement matter.

I also bring up the issue of price. A full adult fare from Rosses' Point to Strandhill on the S2 is €2, and is even less with a Leap card. However, the full adult fare from Tubbercurry to Sligo is €15.

Tubbercurry does not have any other available option besides this intercity bus. It is not a commuter bus. Tubbercurry and the surrounding hinterland has no commuter bus and this needs to be addressed. The 64 is the only publicly owned public transport link between Tubbercurry and Sligo and it must be retained. I am bringing this up because it was announced by Bus Éireann that it was going to scrap the No. 52 Expressway service, which serves communities in Mayo and Galway, which are our border counties. That is what has raised this fear. I have been contacted by loads of people about this because they rely so heavily on this sole bus.

Can we get confirmation from Bus Éireann that this service will not be withdrawn? In the case of the 52 bus, the NTA made a determination that the public service obligation did exist and that the route should be retained, which is brilliant. The key consideration of this determination was that if the 52 bus were to be withdrawn, the number of available journeys in each direction would drop from 11 per day to just five per day. Were the 64 bus to be withdrawn, the consequences would be worse, and an aggregate of nine services per day would plummet to just two, and they are provided by a private service, Feda O'Donnell. Based on the Government's transport policy of avoid, shift and improve, by which we are trying to get people off roads, out of their cars and onto public transport, it is so important this route is retained and I want to get confirmation of that.

Go raibh maith ag an Seanadóir. I am very familiar with Tubbercurry. I go though it very regularly. I have an aunt up in Dunkineely so I visit her a lot and go through Tubbercurry. Tubbercurry is famous for the fleadh cheoil as well.

I know, yes.

My late first cousin, and his two sons and daughters participated in the fleadh cheoil on many occasions, so I know Tubbercurry very well. I thank Senator Cosgrove for her question. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic with members of the House today.

From the outset, I would like to clarify that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport, and I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, who is a huge supporter of the western rail corridor, as the Senator knows, and has put a lot of work into that during the programme for Government and continues to work on it. I know good progress has been made on it. Neither the Minister nor his officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services, such the scheduling of timetables or monitoring of routes, which are an operational matter for Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann operates both public service obligation, PSO, services, funded by the State subvention, and Expressway intercity services, which operate on a commercial basis and do not receive any State subvention. While Expressway is a commercial operation and decisions about its network are a matter for the board, the potential implications of any changes, including for passengers, staff and the wider public transport system, give rise to a number of policy considerations.

That being said, the Minister is aware of the announcement made by Bus Éireann in March 2026 to withdraw some of its services which operate under its commercial service Expressway. It is important to note that the particular route the Senator raised, route 64, is not one of the services which was withdrawn and continues to operate as normal. The decision to withdraw routes 4 and 52 and curtail route 40 was made following a financial and operational review carried out by Bus Éireann with regard to Expressway over recent years, which sought to ensure long term sustainability of the company.

Regarding Bus Éireann's decision on services, there are implications for the public service obligation programme vis-à-vis the availability of funding for service replacements as part of the National Transport Authority's PSO determination process. The Department of Transport acknowledges that any withdrawal of Expressway services will have an impact on some passengers via reduced services and, in some cases, the loss of direct connections. However, it will continue to liaise with the NTA in this regard. The NTA has confirmed that it would seek to mitigate the impacts to the public through targeted PSO interventions where feasible, addressing the most critical connectivity gaps. It is important to note that any interventions in this case would have to take into account competition considerations and available funding and resources in the PSO programme.

Similarly, with regard to the other operator mentioned in the Senator's question, the National Transport Authority has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and for decisions regarding the routes of these services in conjunction with the relevant transport operators. The service mentioned by the Senator is a non-subvented service that is run on a commercial and competitive basis by the operator itself and does not receive funding from the Exchequer.

Go raibh maith ag an Aire Stáit. Tá áthas orm é sin a chloisteáil. Just to confirm, it is not being taken away and it will not be taken away.

That is what I have in my notes here.

Okay. That is great to hear because there is worry and it is amazing the number of people------

It is important to note that route 64 is not one of the services which was withdrawn and continues to operate as normal.

Okay, we can take it as a given that it will not happen in the future either.

I am not the Minister for Transport. I am only reading this note.

That is all right, go raibh maith agat.

That is what I have in the note here and if the Senator is happy with that-----

I am happy with that. That is great.

Okay, go raibh maith agat.

I thank the Minister of State for being here this morning. My Commencement matter is quite straightforward. There has been incredible social unrest, and unrest generally, due to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, with Israel and the US targeting Iran and the knock-on effect that has had with Iranian missile strikes on a number of countries in the Middle East where we have many of our citizens. Thankfully, many of our citizens are returning home safely. There has been improved connectivity. I acknowledge the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who worked very hard during the early days of the crisis to make sure our citizens returned home safely on a number of flights at a very worrying time.

I am raising the issue of the challenge that is facing many citizens who are returning and the spouses of those citizens, some who may not be Irish citizens themselves or have an Irish driver's licence themselves but may have an international driver's licence. One case in point is a spouse of a constituent of mine who has a Brazilian driver's licence and a UAE driver's licence, but because of the regulation as it is at the moment, they are not able to drive until they get their full Irish driver's licence. That creates a big challenge for them, so they are basically renting a car and it is costing a lot of money until they can actually get everything ported over. It is a huge financial barrier and challenge for people who are returning.

Given the fact it is during a time of crisis and there have been examples in the past, like Ukraine, which is not an EU member, where flexibility was allowed for Ukrainians coming here and that was done very quickly and was a practical approach to making life as easy as possible, we need to do the same for our citizens and our citizen's spouses. It is quite a niche area and does not affect a huge number of people, but when it does affect people, it causes a lot of difficulty.

I know the Minister of State is here on behalf of the Department of Transport and I thank him for being here but it is something that should be considered and a bit of flexibility and a period of grace should be given to allow people to get set up. There are so many challenges people face, whether it is trying to get young children into a school, finding a house, and all of those things you need to do to set up and start a life all over again because of what is going on in the Middle East. It is a great opportunity for our diaspora to return home, but in every case we always need to make it as easy as possible for them to set up their lives here again for themselves and their families. I would welcome the Minister of State's consideration on behalf of the Department.

I thank Senator Duffy for raising this Commencement matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. People resident in Ireland must have a valid Irish or other EU licence to drive here.

A resident with an exchangeable licence may apply to exchange it for an Irish licence in all categories on that licence covered by the relevant exchange agreement.

Ireland does not have driving licence exchange agreements with any countries in the Middle East. Entering a driving licence exchange agreement with a country outside the EU is not a straightforward matter, and reaching them is not a matter of political will. The core principle when reaching an agreement with another jurisdiction is to ensure the continued safety of Irish road users. Should an individual return to the State temporarily, they may be considered a visitor rather than a resident. Under the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, visitors from contracting states who hold a valid licence can drive on each other's roads for up to a year when visiting. Should an individual wish to take up residence in Ireland, they must obtain an Irish licence in order to drive here. However, a person with a full but non-exchangeable licence can avail of a shorter learning-to-drive process, namely six essential driver training lessons instead of 12 and no minimum period of six months before taking a driving test. Should the individual have passed an Irish driving test and acquired an Irish licence prior to moving to the Middle East, it should be noted that, under the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006, as amended, someone who is resident in Ireland may apply to renew their Irish licence within ten years of it expiring. Situations can vary and some licenses may be issued for a shorter period in certain circumstances, such as on health grounds. However, this effectively gives a window of 20 years from the day an Irish licence is issued to the date it must be renewed.

The Road Traffic (Recognition of Foreign Driving Licences) (Ukraine) Order 2022, which came into law on 22 April 2022, allowed Ukrainians admitted to Ireland under the EU's temporary protection directive to exchange their Ukrainian licences for Irish licences. This was an exceptional measure taken in response to the immediate and extraordinary humanitarian crisis arising from the conflict in Ukraine pending an EU-wide response to this issue. These licences were only valid for 12 months and were an interim measure prior to the introduction in July 2022 of EU-wide recognition of Ukrainian licences held by people given temporary protection under the directive for the duration of that protection.

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. My motivation here is to make that it as easy as possible for people returning home and for a bit of flexibility to be given to them. I acknowledge the reply and understand it is so important we have safe roads and strong regulations in that way, but we also need to be dynamic, practical and fluid as we were during the invasion of Ukraine in the context of the unrest and ongoing war in the Middle East that have resulted in our citizens being displaced. It is great to see people returning home. We need to be as flexible as possible, so I would welcome it if the Minister of State spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the Department about the matter further in order to reiterate the ask. We should have a lever in place in order that, without too much work, a Minister or Minister of State can make a call very quickly and have something introduced. This is one example in that regard, but we all know that down the line there will be other wars or crises in different countries that will lead to people needing to return to Ireland. In those cases, we need to be ready to make it as easy as possible for them to return and set up their lives again here. It is something we should be prepared for, and I would appreciate the Minister of State's support.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. I will bring what he raised to the attention of the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. I think the Minister of State has responsibility for driving licences. Regrettably, we are seeing an increase in fatalities on our roads this year, and we must not relax the standards required of people in order that they can be awarded licences. Accordingly, we must ensure that anyone who obtains an Irish licence has passed a practical driving test to Irish standards. Where it is not possible to do so, an Irish licence cannot be issued. While those arriving from Ukraine were able to benefit from a measure put in place under the EU's temporary protection directive, no similar directive has been established in the current situation. When people come to Ireland with non-exchangeable licences, they are required to go through the process of obtaining Irish licences. While many may have a safe driving record, we have no way of measuring the standards of the driving test passed to obtain the licence. Road safety and keeping roads safe for all road users must always be the priority.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit.

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the House to take this matter. I tabled it in order to get the Minister with responsibility for sport to make a statement on the growing concern that top-level GAA matches are increasingly being placed behind paywalls despite the significant public funding the GAA receives from the Exchequer. This denies thousands of ordinary supporters access to our national games.

There is growing anger and frustration about the GAA's decision to put the major championship matches behind the GAA+ paywall. This weekend, Kerry will be playing Donegal in one of the biggest games of the entire summer, and supporters are being told they must pay extra to watch it. The Minister of State visited the centre of excellence in GAA headquarters in Kerry recently. He saw for himself the parade of former greats and heroes of Kerry football on that wall, and where people are going in the context of future development as well. This Saturday's match will have the biggest players in the country involved. It is the biggest clash of all in the championship so far, and to air it on GAA+ is simply not right. People accepted GAA+ initially because they were told it would help cover games that would not otherwise be shown due to scheduling clashes. Supporters understood that. They understood the need to give smaller counties and less prominent fixtures exposure. However, we have reached a point where the biggest matches in the championship are being hidden behind a paywall.

People feel deeply let down by that because the GAA is not just another sporting organisation ; it was built from the ground up by ordinary people in every parish in Ireland. It was built by volunteers standing at gates collecting tickets in the rain. It was built by coaches driving young lads and girls to training and games three nights a week. It was built by mothers and fathers washing jerseys, making sandwiches, organising fundraisers and selling raffle tickets. It was built by people mowing and lining pitches, painting dressing rooms and keeping clubs alive through sheer commitment and community spirit. Nobody did those things for profit. Gaelic games are amateur sports. People did not give up their evenings and weekends in order that one day the biggest championship games could be locked behind the paywall relating to a subscription service. That is why people feel so strongly about this. They feel the games are being taken away from the very people who built them. There is something fundamentally unfair about asking lifelong supporters, many of whom gave decades of voluntary service to the GAA, to take out another subscription just to watch their county team play in the championship.

At a time when we should be doing everything possible to showcase Gaelic football and hurling stars, we are instead making them less accessible and less visible. One statement made during the week said it was like putting the family jewels in the back of the closet and hiding them away.

There is another side to this that decision makers may not fully appreciate. For many elderly people living alone, watching championship matches on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon is a huge part of their week. It helps pass lonely hours and gives them something to look forward to. The same is true for people in hospitals and nursing homes and those who can no longer travel to matches. Many are not comfortable with streaming services. Some do not have smart TVs, smartphones or laptops. Others simply cannot afford it. They are being shut out from something that has always been part of Irish summer life.

We also have to remember that the taxpayer supports the GAA substantially through the sports capital programme - I am proud that every club in Kerry has got money from it - major infrastructure funding, Sport Ireland grants and local authority investments. In 2024, the Government provided €97 million in public funding to the GAA. That is taxpayers’ money. It comes from ordinary people, who are the same people who fill the stands, keep the clubs alive and give their time freely year after year. Yet, these people are now being told they cannot watch their own national games and their own local heroes unless they pay extra, download the apps or have strong broadband. We saw this clearly over the past weekend with Tipperary versus Clare in the Munster hurling championship. RTÉ offered to show it and the GAA refused. Why refuse free access when the public already funds the association so heavily?

The Government will and should continue to support the GAA. I am calling for that because of the extraordinary role it plays in Irish life and communities across the country. However, the GAA has a responsibility to remain accessible to the people who sustain it. This coming Saturday I will be listening to the Kerry versus Donegal game. I will not be attending. I will be listening to the great Kerry radio coverage by Timmy Moynihan and Ambrose O'Donovan. I will not even attend. They are bringing games back to life again for people who cannot view them. Like Mícheál Ó hEithir and our own Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh they are bringing those games back into our sitting rooms again because that is the way it is going.

I call on the Minister for sport to engage directly with the GAA and urge it to change course as quickly as possible. I asked this ten days out last week and I am glad the Minister of State has come to the House to see if we can come to a conclusion and bring back the free-to-air channels for people to watch.

I thank the Senator for raising this. He is bringing the capacity to advocate on behalf of his county on a sporting matter into the Oireachtas in the same way I know that he and many of his family have done on the football field in Kerry. This is an important matter and something of great interest to people across the country, particularly in both our counties with regard to the matches coming up this weekend.

The reality is that the GAA is an independent body that makes its own decisions about matters such as this. It is responsible for the management of the commercial rights to its games and competitions. We all know that a challenge for the GAA and all sporting organisations is how to strike a balance between generating revenue from such rights and ensuring as wide an audience as possible for the games. We all understand the desire of sports fans to see as many matches as possible shown on television, especially those involving their own counties. We have come a long way from the days when the great Mícheál Ó hEithir was broadcasting on television and people were gathering around one TV set to watch. That has grown to a situation where we have seen a significant increase in the number of GAA and sports games shown on television, even over the past ten or 20 years or more. As I was growing up, there were not nearly as many games shown on TV across any sport, particularly GAA, as there are today. That has generally led to an accessible situation in how people access their games, but there is a challenge for organisations as to how they balance that in the context of how much is free-to-air. There is also a balance for the Government with regard to how much we intervene in directing what should and must be available and designated free-to-air.

There are a significant number of games available free-to-air on public service broadcasters. It is important to point out that a number of Gaelic games are designated for free-to-air coverage and will not go behind a paywall. These include the All-Ireland senior inter-county football, hurling and camogie finals. The designation of major events, including sports events, is a statutory process to ensure that certain events, not just sporting events, which are of significant cultural and societal importance to Irish audiences remain available for free-to-air viewing. However, it is not intended to designate an entire competition or all of one sport's events, as I know many sports fans might want. If we had a free hand and I had a free hand and was not looking to be proportionate I would like to designate all Donegal games as free-to-air. I am sure the Senator would like to do the same with Kerry, but we have to be proportionate about where the State intervenes and where it does not in that regard. Other than those events designated for broadcast as free-to-air, the question of which sporting events are broadcast and how is primarily a matter for the sports body concerned. Where and how the matches are shown is not a matter for Government.

The Senator mentioned the Government commitment to funding the GAA and other sporting organisations. That is something we are proud to do because it provides great value in terms of the return the public gets for the wonderful opportunity to engage in sport in their local communities. I was glad that with the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, we secured €750,000 for the GAA in the most recent budget to develop the game of hurling across the country. That is something we look to build on and continue to support in upcoming budgets as well.

We do not have any plans to designate more events as statutorily free-to-air. There are limits on how far we can go on that. We all agree it is important that the GAA considers everything in the round and tries to make as much available free-to-air as possible but retains the capacity, as every organisation must do, to decide what games should be on television. Obviously, not every game is on TV. In the past number of years, with online streaming, many more are available through channels that would not have been there before, and they would not have been available at all previously.

There is great anticipation for the game this weekend. I am looking forward to it, following on from the great contest we had in the national league final. I hope Donegal can repeat that on this occasion and are fresh from the past three or four weeks, although I am sure Kerry will be lying in wait and have other ideas. That should mean it is a great event. It is unfortunate that we both will not be seeing it free-to-air on this occasion. I would have liked that to be the case, but this is ultimately a call for the GAA and that is appropriate. For the State to intervene in a way that makes directions as to what games are and are not shown outside of the big showcases and finals over the course of the year would be a step too far.

I welcome Deputy Ivana Bacik and her guests to the Public Gallery. I hope they enjoy their stay.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I respect everything he said about being proportionate, the GAA and values, broadcasting rights, commercial views and rights and all that. However, the one thing I did not get is that we need to start engagement with the GAA. We need to call it into the sports committee within these Houses and open this conversation up. This Government is doing its best to support the GAA across the country and so has every other government. They have kept pitches and clubhouses open and accessible to people who want to play football but then it comes to the biggest games of them all. I am not just talking about Kerry and Donegal. I know the Minister of State is a proud Donegal man. Donegal is a real rural county, like Kerry, and a lot of people cannot access that TV, and the Michael Murphys, Jason Foleys or David Cliffords of Kerry. They cannot.

I will give the Minister of State one word: "volunteerism". Many moons ago, an underage game was due to take place in Finuge, near Listowel. There was only one car and two adults available They put every kid they had into that car. They were stopped going over the bridge in Listowel as they headed for Finuge six miles out the road. When he stopped them, the garda said, "Oh my God. What's going on here?" The volunteer, the great man behind that wheel, said, "Guard, I'm on my way to an underage game six miles out the road". There were legs and heads everywhere in the car. The boot was open and there were legs hanging out. The guard said to him, "How many have you?", and he said, "If I had one more, I'd have a sub." That was years ago, and the same person is being prevented from watching the game next Saturday, which is wrong. I call on the Government to bring the GAA before the relevant committee in order to start the conversation. What is happening has to be reviewed.

This would be a good issue for the committee to explore and something the Senator, working with the committee, would be able to do. We do not have any plans to extend the reach of Government in relation to deciding what games should and should not be on TV. We all want to see as many games as possible. We have many more now than we did a few years ago. It is challenging when a game like this, that is so looked forward to, is not shown on television. It would be a worthwhile conversation to have in relation to examining the GAA's position on this. If the committee has any proposals it wants the Government to consider, it can submit them.

Ultimately, it is about what is proportionate for the Government to be involved in and what is not. We have capacity in the State to designate certain games free to air. We have done that for Gaelic games. How far we take that is a question that has to be given strong consideration in terms of what is appropriate and what is not, bearing in mind the independence of sporting organisations, what access to games serves the public well and the capacity of independent sporting organisations to conduct their commercial and financial affairs.

It was never about profit, though.

It is fair to consider where the balance lies, and it is open to the Senator to engage with the sport committee on that. In the meantime, I know we will both be-----

Best of luck to Kerry. The Minister of State did not mention that.

-----looking forward to the contest this weekend.