Since the release of the GAA Demographics Committee Report in December 2025 I have been pursuing the issues raised particularly in relation to rural depopulation and community facilities. 

Below are written and subsequent oral questions to the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht that I tabled in Dáil Eireann.  Also provided is my contribution when the GAA attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government, and Heritage and communication received from the GAA in this respect.

GAA Appearance at Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government, and Heritage

20th January 2026 I

Deputy Brendan Smith:

I apologise for missing most of the meeting but I was in another committee meeting. I compliment the GAA, both nationally and in every unit of the organisation, for carrying out this work. It is important to bring a focus to the population diversity in our country today. I represent Cavan-Monaghan. I attended the demographics committee meeting of the Cavan county board in August 2024 and I was very impressed with the membership of that committee. It was not just made up of officers of clubs or the county board. Rather, there were a range of people representing different strata in society. That was extremely important and they do very good work. I remember when the late Seán McCague, iar-uachtarán Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, attended a GAA meeting in Cavan one night. I think it was around the year 2000. He told us that night that he had just travelled from Cork, where he had visited some of the major clubs. He outlined the difficulties the clubs were facing in not having enough facilities while having huge numbers of underage players out training every Saturday morning. We had the opposite problem at that time. We had trouble fielding teams. Thankfully, it reversed in the meantime but now we are facing decline in some of our rural clubs again, as is so evident. Mr. Hurl used the phrase “eastward and urban shift”. To take County Cavan as an example, in the east of county, such as in Virginia, Kingscourt and Bailiborough, across that region huge numbers of people commute to Dublin. The numbers in their clubs are growing hugely, and it is great to see. Often, there are huge pressures on facilities. In fairness, over recent years, there has been huge Government investment in sport. We need to see more of it. All of us, at both Oireachtas and local authority levels, work with our local clubs of all sporting disciplines to get funding to help build up the sporting infrastructure. In communities in the west of the county, such as Blacklion and Swanlinbar on the Fermanagh border, their nearest sizeable town is Enniskillen. They face particular difficulty. Within a county, therefore, there is huge diversity and we must deal with that. The Cathaoirleach outlined so well earlier in his contribution that we have a lot of social and educational infrastructure in rural Ireland that is not being used. I would love to see a proper inventory done with regard to infrastructure that is not being used to the extent it could be. My club, Templeport St. Aidan’s, which is only a junior club in west Cavan located west of Ballyconnell, has fabulous facilities, with two pitches, lights, a gym and everything. Our neighbouring club, another junior club, has excellent facilities as well. Unfortunately, they are not in a position to field a team. They are playing with us at present in an interim arrangement to ensure that everybody who wants to participate has a team to play on. What the GAA is doing in getting this message out is hugely important. It will focus the people’s minds, as Deputy Aird said, at official level in particular. That has to be driven by political people in the Oireachtas, in particular at Government level. There is so much that can be done. I would emphasise the importance of ensuring that we utilise the infrastructure already in place. By and large, every rural parish has a great community centre. There will be a primary school, if not a second level school, and there are other facilities such as meeting rooms and sports facilities such as football pitches, predominantly, and GAA pitches, etc. I do not know if Mr. Hurl and I are the only two people from Ulster in the room, but maybe Croke Park and Comhairle Uladh would give out a good message showing that we want to support the rural counties and smaller towns by stating that the Ulster final will be held in Clones for ever more. Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh.