An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-12
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Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel

We see Westmeath contesting the provincial final against Dublin next weekend. We saw Cork the last day as well. The second best sideline ball ever taken by a footballer was taken by Monaghan's Jack McCarron, all viewed on RTÉ, which took Monaghan to a provincial final. We see the delight in the crowds and the number of people attending these games again. Unfortunately, what does the GAA do? It hides the Kerry and Donegal game away from the very people who made the association. All the provincial finals are on TV with two football finals to go. However, apparently that is not enough. Now it is box office. Now it is about squeezing more money out of loyal supporters and excluding people from watching their own club players. The GAA was built in rural parishes and rural communities, not in the corporate boardrooms up the street. There are 12 days until this game. Today I am calling for the Minister of sport to come to the House. It is not too late for the debate. This needs to be challenged because the people who carried the GAA for generations should never be locked out from watching their own heroes on the biggest stages of all.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:55+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-12