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10th May 2024
02:29pm BST
Taoiseach Simon Harris has called on the GAA to reconsider their decision to put certain Championship games behind a paywall on GAAGO.
Saturday's Munster Senior Hurling Championship game between Cork and All-Ireland champions Limerick will only be available to watch on the streaming platform.
Since RTÉ are contractually obliged to show the two provincial football finals on Sunday, the only way fans will be able to watch any hurling action is on the subscription service that is owned by the GAA and RTÉ.
Speaking in Cork, the Taoiseach said: "The GAA is an incredible organisation and tomorrow tens of thousands of youngsters right across Ireland will go out and they'll kick a ball and they'll take a hurl, they'll play camogie, they'll play hurling and they'll play football.
"It has always been a grassroots organisation and I think the grassroots are really, really, really angry and really disappointed and really frustrated that matches that the kids want to watch, that the family want to watch, are being put behind a paywall.
"The GAA really need to revisit this, they really need to listen to their grassroots members.
"That's always been their strength, and I think they've gotten this wrong. I think they need to reflect. My colleague, Senator Tim Lombart, has asked that the GAA would come into the Oireachtas, I think that's entirely appropriate, and that they tease through and discuss this issue."
After RTÉ hurling analyst Donal Óg Cusack claimed that the government hadn't shown enough support to the game of hurling the Taoiseach was forced to defend their position and insisted that they "see huge value" in the sport.
"The Government supports the GAA, the Government sees huge value in the GAA, communities right across Ireland do, but they've gotten this wrong," he said.
"There'll be so many people tomorrow who will want to watch that game, and it being behind a paywall isn't what those who support the GAA in every community across Ireland want to see, so they really need to reflect on it."
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