A Fine Gael Senator has accused the GAA of “locking the people out” of watching their teams play.

As GAA fans across Ireland prepare to watch their teams compete in provincial and all-Ireland championships, Senator Mike Kennelly believes far too few of them will be broadcast. 

“The decisions that GAA are currently making is taking Gaelic football and hurling out of the homes of the ordinary people of this country and it is not in the interest of promoting our Gaelic games, our national games,” he argued on Newstalk Breakfast. 

“This weekend we have eight games scheduled in the championship, five are being viewed on RTÉ or GAA+, but there's three significant ones as well that are not on RTÉ or GAA+.”

Senator Kennelly that the GAA is more popular than ever and more people should have the opportunity to watch games at home. 

“I think the success of the GAA on the new Gaelic football rules has meant that it's pretty again to go to watch football,” he said. 

“The revenues are up, the gates are full, the venues are full, people can't get tickets now.”

On the question of how to pay for an expansion in the broadcasting, Senator Kennelly the popularity of the GAA means it can afford to splash out. 

“If you're on about generating revenue, we had four provincial finals this year across the country that were aired on RTÉ.

“There was 32,000 in Killarney, there was 29,000 at the Armagh-Monaghan game.

“There was 23,000 people at Roscommon-Galway in Hyde Park and here was 36,000 at Westmeath versus Dublin.

“So the revenue is there, it's staring them in the face.”

Main image: Kerry versus Galway. Picture by: Ray McManus/Sportsfile.