The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said the broadcasting of senior inter-county hurling matches on pay-per-view television should be reviewed.
He said he believes all GAA games should be shown free-to-air.
Minister Martin was asked to comment on the fact that the weekend Munster SHC game between Cork and Tipperary was shown on the pay-per-view channel GAAGO, a joint venture between the GAA and RTÉ.
His comments come in the wake of strong views aired on the topic by fellow Corkonian, Donal Óg Cusack.
He said a significant audience missed the game because it was only available live on GAAGO.
Minister Martin replied "I think so" when he was asked if he believed all GAA games should be available free-to-air.
"That is a personal view that I have had for a long, long time, and it is the game of hurling that has lost the most in my view because hurling at its best is simply a classic," he said.
"Irrespective of anyone's preference for any particular code of sport, everyone loves to watch a great game of hurling. We have had two classics already now in terms of the Clare-Limerick game and the Cork-Tipp game and it just seems that a significant audience didn't get access to that, didn't see hurling at its best.
Impassioned debate on the broadcasting of hurling. #SundayGame. pic.twitter.com/eKL6O0zKte
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 7, 2023
"Anybody who was in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as I was on Saturday night, it was just one of those occasions - sun-drenched, a beautiful new stadium and a great game of hurling between Cork and Tipperary."
Minister Martin said he believed hurling itself would benefit if all games were shown on free-to-air TV.
"Certainly, our senior citizens need to be able to watch these games and, I think, hurling would benefit because if we want to continue to brand hurling as one of the great iconic identifiers of Ireland, one of the great games played at a very high quality, (and) at a very high level of professionalism in terms of the execution of the hurling, we want more and more people to see it.
"I think it should be reviewed for the benefit of hurling itself."
Head of GAAGO defends broadcast of games on streaming service
The Head of GAAGO has defended the broadcast of gaelic games on the streaming service, saying it had meant a tripling of the number of live matches available across the championship season.
Noel Quinn said the response to date had been positive.
Mr Quinn said GAAGO has only recently been launched and he asked people to judge it in the longer term.
He said he would welcome the views expressed today by the Tánaiste "as a card-carrying member" of the GAA and someone who regularly attends GAA matches.
Responding to Mr Martin's comments, he said: "We would always respect the views of our members and we would take them on board.
"I think what we would ask people to do is to judge GAAGO over a number of years or a number of months even, rather than an initial few weeks.
"We are quite proud of the arrangement we have put together across free-to-air and we look forward to RTÉ's double header action of hurling in the coming weeks."
Mr Quinn also pointed out that the GAA make in the region of 200 games available free-to-air on RTÉ, TG4 and BBC every year.
Mr Quinn addressed the criticism of the decision to have recent high-profile Munster SHC games on the streaming platform.
"The Limerick-Clare one was a massive one, I was at that, it was amazing. The game itself, that was originally a Sunday slot...it was offered to RTÉ and taken by RTÉ. The great Limerick Run came in that weekend and the match was moved to the Saturday.
"So rather than it not being broadcast, naturally GAAGO picked it up and we were more than happy to pick it up as well.
"And even last weekend, the Cork-Tipp one, with the Munster [football] final on the Sunday, they weren't going to play Cork-Tipp on a Sunday.
"Look, admittedly there will be some big games that go on GAAGO and not on free-to-air, and that's just a fact of life, that's just how subscription services go sometimes.
"But had we continued with that traditional linear partner model, because of the traditional 5[pm] and 7pm slots, a TV partner won't want to cannibalise his audience, they'll have one after the other, whereas with GAAGO and the flexibility it offers we've literally tripled the number of games available to people.
"Look, we're fully aware of some people saying that Munster hurling is behind a paywall. But we've literally tripled the number of games made available to those who are prepared probably to pay the €1.55 per game, if they bought it at the season pass rate."
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Drivetime, former Mayo player and now Fine Gael TD for the county Alan Dillon, has called for the GAAGO service to be discontinued. When asked should it be scrapped, he replied: "Absolutely".
Dillon now wants a "re-evaluation of the current GAA deal", and added: "To echo what the tanaiste said I think the GAA community has real concerns as to how GAAGO is impacting its association. There should be an opportunity now for members to engage in an open and constructive debate to ensure that the core values of the oganisation are upheld.
"There needs to be a re-evaluation of the current GAA deal, to move to a solution that benefits all supporters."
The majority of live Saturday inter-county championship games this season will be broadcast on GAAGO.
The pay-per-view channel is broadcasting a total of 38 exclusive live games over the course of the championship.
GAAGO will broadcast on 12 of the 17 championship Saturdays, with RTÉ broadcasting games on the remaining five Saturdays.
RTÉ will broadcast a total of 31 live championship games over the summer, in addition to three Tailteann Cup games and the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
The majority of RTE's live games will be broadcast on Sundays. The number of football championship matches has increased massively with new structure, with RTÉ's 35 matches split 20:15 in favour of football.
The GAA's media rights deal will be in place for five years, until 2027.
GAAGO costs €12 per game, or €79 for access to streamed games over the course of the season.
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