On Wednesday's Off The Ball, Joe Molloy was joined by former All-Ireland winning manager and Fine Gael TD John O'Mahony, immunologist Kingston Mills and epidemiologist Anthony Staines to discuss the return of GAA across all levels in Ireland.
After a generally positive week in which the numbers of deaths and new cases has declined, the question of sport's resumption post-Covid-19 drove the discussion on Wednesday's Off The Ball.
Throughout an informed and detailed debate that can be accessed in full here, the question of when GAA fans can again expect to attend elite level games of Gaelic football and Hurling in pre-Covid-19 numbers was considered.
"I think we need to be at zero cases in Ireland," suggested epidemiologist Anthony Staines, "and we'll get to that with really intense tracking and tracing.
"I don't see us going back to 80,000 in Croke Park for some time yet but that doesn't mean we can't play. [However, to get back to normal we would have to] bring the number down to zero and crush the curve.
"That is not going to happen by accident, however. The way we're going at the moment, and we've made great progress, the numbers will go down. But if we want them to go down to zero and stay there we have to plan that. That means masks, tracking & tracing, quarantining and looking at every step as we go along."
On the actual resumption of games themselves, immunologist Kingston Mills outlined what he believes would be the necessary conditions for such circumstances to occur.
"If the numbers are down to no new cases in Ireland, and that is not that unlikely, then there is no reason why GAA and all other sports can't resume," he argued. "I don't agree with the comments that we will need so socially isolate for years because that is just over the top in my view.
"This is not necessarily my area, but if the disease doesn't return in a second wave, and there are lots of situations where that's happened, then I don't think we need not be playing sport until the end of the year.
"We have to be a bit more optimistic."
You can watch back this informed debate in full right here.
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