GAAGo controversy sorely lacking perspective

KEVIN EGAN COLUMN

In a world where families are getting crushed by cost of living issues and young people are being forced out of the country by farcical house prices, it’s probably unsurprising that politicians are trying to shift the public conversation to the topic of some people not being able to see Cork hurl against Tipperary on TV.

If you, or anyone in your social circle, tries to argue that it is somehow egregiously wrong that ordinary people did not have access to these games on GAAGo, please try and provide answers to these three questions.

(1) 31 games will be broadcast live over the course of the championship, not including any of those on BBC, or the various U-20 games and minor games on TG4, or any of the camogie or ladies football, across all networks. This is almost three games per active weekend. If you don’t deem this to be an acceptable number, how many would be enough for you?

(2) If your issue is that the “bigger” games aren’t on TV, then what you’re saying is that even though there is already a strong bias towards the footballers of Dublin, Kerry, Galway and Mayo, and the hurlers of Cork, Tipperary, Galway and Limerick, you think that even more of those games should be included, at the expense of the small handful of games featuring the smaller counties. Do you think this is fair to fans of those counties, most of which never get to see their team live on TV?

(3) If your problem is that broadband coverage in Ireland is not robust enough in many places, then does the blame for this lie with the GAA, or with the Irish Government, who first announced the launch of the National Broadband Plan in August of 2012, with a target of full rollout in 2015?