GAA President Jarlath Burns has said that he is “very surprised” by criticism of the GAAGO service from the government, adding that “you would almost think there was an election coming up.”
Amid criticism that Saturday’s Munster Senior Hurling Championship game between Cork and All-Ireland champions Limerick was available only on GAAGO, Taoiseach Simon Harris last week said that the organisation have “gotten this wrong” on streaming service GAAGO.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin echoed the Taoiseach’s comments. “I’ve huge concerns about it, I don’t understand it, in terms of the promotion of the game of hurling,” he told RTÉ News.
RTÉ were contractually obliged to show the two provincial football finals on Sunday, meaning the only outlet for the biggest hurling matches of the weekend was the GAAGO platform, which is jointly owned by the GAA and RTÉ.
However Burns has come out in defence of the service, insisting that were it not for GAAGO, those hurling games would not have been available to screen anywhere.
Speaking on the Claire Byrne Show, Burns said: “I’m very surprised to hear the Taoiseach speaking about this considering last year we actually sat in front of an Oireachtas Committee, we were asked to do so, we did so.
“There were no issues at the end of it, they accepted every argument that we had, all of our rationale, for the fact that we only have one broadcast partner, which is RTÉ, they have 35 matches.
“If you try to imagine a world without GAAGO, the rest of these games just would not be broadcast because we only have one broadcast partner.
“Myself and Tom Ryan, the Ard Stiúrthóir, last Wednesday actually had a meeting with the Sports Minister, Thomas Byrne, and all of his officials. We actually put that on the agenda, GAAGO.
“We asked him were there any residual issues coming up regarding it. He said, no, we accept that GAAGO is an outstanding service, particularly for our exiles abroad, people who, who wouldn’t be able to watch any of the games and GAA has a growing global market as well.
“Thomas Byrne actually said those words and, the previous week I actually had a meeting with Pascal Donohoe in my own office in Croke Park, it was an excellent meeting. He has a great passion and understanding of the GAA.
“GAAGO didn’t even come up. So, I’m very, very surprised and disappointed at the Taoiseach and then the Tánaiste would actually speak about something that we have already been in front of an Oireachtas Committee for.
“They were satisfied with our answers. It came up last week at a meeting. There were no issues.
“You would almost think there was an election coming up.”
