‘200 people going to Semple Stadium is no health threat’
TDs, club chiefs, pundits and medics back GAA proof call
THE GAA’s call on health chiefs to publish any evidence they have supporting the ban on fans at matches is gaining widespread support.
Up until now 200 people were allowed to be part of an outdoor sporting event, which meant that 50 to 120 GAA fans could attend matches.
However, new restrictions, announced on Tuesday night, state that all such events must be behind closed doors.
GAA chiefs say there is no link between the disturbing rise in coronavirus cases and spectators at matches, and its call for clarity won cross-party support as well as backing from club bosses, commentators and health experts.
The association invited Acting Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn and the National Public Health Emergency Team to meet its own advisers on the issue. It said: ‘The GAA invites Dr Ronan Glynn and NPHET to present the empirical evidence which informed the requirement for the association to curtail its activities.’ It added that they should meet ‘without delay’ and said the GAA and its members ‘remain at all times committed to protecting public health’.
Fianna Fáil backbencher Michael Moynihan also questioned the Government’s decision, saying yesterday: ‘I cannot understand what is the connection between having 200 people at a sporting event and the spikes.
‘We need an evidence basis for the decisions that are being made. People are looking for clear guidance in relation to the decisions that were made yesterday – people will take it on board if there is clear evidence. But where is the evidence to show that, because of sporting events going on in the last few weeks, there has been a spike or a rise at the games?
‘The public cannot understand the logic of the sporting games being held behind closed doors. I cannot understand it, for the life of me, and that is hugely important,’ he added.
Fine Gael MEP and former GAA president Seán Kelly said the Government should explain why there can be no more spectators and what will happen into the future.
He said: ‘If there is a logic to it, we need to hear it because people will understand logic – the reason why, but not a blanket approach. The organisations involved in team sports would be as well to go together to, perhaps, Government. Because in fairness, NPHET have a very narrow focus, as their job is to limit the coronavirus.
‘They should definitely demand a meeting with the Minister for Sport [Catherine Martin] and the Junior Minister for Sport [Jack Chambers] to explain the rationale behind this and also what is likely to happen into the future.’
Sports pundit and former Meath footballer Colm O’Rourke told
Sarah McInerney, on RTÉ Radio, that of the games he has attended, he did not witness ‘any great congregation of people before or after’. He said the new rules had come as a surprise ‘to all of us who have been involved in the GAA’, adding: ‘We thought things were going well. I don’t think that there were any cases directly related to games or to clubs. Some clubs have had to stand down their members for a while, including my own, but these were always cases that were outside sport.’
Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan described the new restrictions as a ‘big setback’ and also called on the Government to release any evidence it has that links the rate of infections to the crowds that have been attending club games in recent months.
‘I’m a loss for words... really disappointed again,’ he told RTÉ. ‘I’d love to know where the evidence is coming from to support this. We obviously know we’re in a pandemic; we’ve been through a lot over the last six months.
‘We’ve had no cases in Offaly that are linked to the GAA. I just wonder who is representing the GAA, who is representing the young people who’ve been badly hit with all these restrictions.
‘I’m calling on the Government to see the advice. I’d love to see the advice that links it [Covid cases] to GAA activity and the few people we’ve had at matches here,’ he added.
Paul Moynagh, professor of immunology in NUI Maynooth, also said he is perplexed by the move. He told RTÉ’s Drivetime, on Tuesday, that there is clear evidence to show that Covid-19 is ‘significantly less transmissible outdoors than it is indoors’.
But the chairman of NPHET’s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip
Nolan, defended the advice, saying there has been a slow but very particular rise in the level of disease in the population. He said the level of community transmission ‘appears’ to have doubled over the last ten days. He took to Twitter to aim a jibe at the GAA, writing: ‘I’ve noticed Dr Ronan Glynn is pretty busy at the moment. If I can free up time I’d be happy to explain GAA. ‘A start, games and training continue, the measures are designed to limit congregation, and limit mixing between households. And save lives,’ he added. However, Labour Party leader Alan Kelly called on Sports Minister Catherine Martin to sit down with all the major sporting organisations and explain why the ‘disheartening’ rules have been introduced. ‘I believe that the decision in relation to sporting events is perplexing,’ said Mr Kelly.
‘Two hundred people, and that includes players, mentors and referees, etc, going to a venue like Semple Stadium, is not a public health threat.
‘I believe that this is really something that is disheartening, it doesn’t have public support. It’s one issue that I believe that the public really are not willing to support and I find it very, very disheartening and confusing.’
He said that if the GAA, the IRFU, the FAI or any other organisations want to see the detail as to why this has been brought in, the Government, through the appropriate Sports Minister, should work with them and meet them.
‘I believe it is not the role for NPHET or Dr Glynn, who has a different role. At the end of the day, it’s the Government and ministers who have to be held to account for their decisions. So they’re the people that the relevant organisation should be going to,’ added the Labour leader.