Brian O'Connell

Indeed, OK.

Well, this committee is chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart.

It heard from Charles Harrison.

Now, he's the international manager for the GAA, and one of the issues he was asked about was in relation to the development of the games in the U.S.,

And this was on the clampdown on immigration, the actions of ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, and whether this had in any way impacted on GA games or gatherings in America.

It's very hard to put a figure on how many Irish are undocumented in the US.

It could be anything from, say, 10 to maybe 50,000.

I think it's more widely accepted.

It's likely to be at the lower end of that scale.

But it is likely some, probably many, are involved in GA in their community.

So given this,

John Lahart had asked Mr Harrison if the GAA had come across any sensitivities or any vulnerabilities among its members in relation to this issue.

This was his response.

Well, there is a very vibrant GAA community in America.

I mean, we'd been hearing earlier this year about issues around visas leading to difficulty getting numbers.

Damien Lawler had interviewed Rona McGinley, who manages New York, and he was referencing the fact in the interview there was what he calls a trickiness around US work visas and travel.

And he said there had been a drop-off in the old pathways of players coming from Ireland.

For example...

Over the years, you would have had players going out for a summer, playing GAA, coming back.

You know, some of those pathways are a little bit harder now.