Taoiseach Simon Harris has reiterated his opposition to big GAA games being put behind a paywall.

Harris said in May that the GAA needs to listen to its grassroots and revealed in the Dáil yesterday that a meeting with GAA president Jarlath Burns and director-general Tom Ryan was on the cards as the row over the GAAGO streaming service continues to rage.

“The last time I raised this there was a lot of tut-tutting from top brass in the GAA, and they were very disappointed with my comments, but I’d say this to them, respectfully, far more people are disappointed with how this season has been shown in terms of GAAGO,” he said in a response to a question from Galway TD Noel Grealish.

“So don’t listen to me if you don’t want, that’s grand, but please do listen to the grassroots of the GAA. The GAA is an amazing organisation and its beauty has been that it is a grassroots organisation.

“And I’ve said many, many times that the GAA needs to listen to the grassroots. I was at the Cork-Limerick match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh earlier this summer, unfortunately many people across the country did not get a chance to see the game because it was behind a paywall. The same, indeed, was true for Galway and Dublin last weekend, as well."

He continued: “But there has to be a better way of doing this. I’m certainly a big supporter of the GAA, the government is a big supporter of the GAA. But I do think they should listen to the grassroots and I absolutely look forward to meeting with the president of the GAA and the director-general, both of whom have reached out to me on this issue.”

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