Fine Gael Senator Michelle Mulherin has accused the GAA of discriminating against Senators after she failed to get a ticket to the All-Ireland football final.

Ms Mulherin was told by the GAA that her Seanad seat does not automatically entitle her to buy a ticket for the All-Ireland final, scheduled for this Sunday between Dublin and Mayo.

The GAA allows TDs from participating counties to buy two tickets at full price.

Ms Mulherin claims senators from participating counties were allowed to buy tickets last year.

“This isn’t about Michelle Mulherin. This is actually about a policy of the GAA at Croke Park which is discriminating against senators in the House of the Oireachtas,” she said.

“Basically up until this, every year, senators and TDs from competing counties could write in to Croke Park, send in a cheque to pay for a couple of tickets and they were accommodated. That has been the policy for quite some time,” she said.

Rang Croke Park

Ms Mulherin said she rang Croke Park and was told to write in and send a cheque.

She said Croke Park sent a letter back to her saying they are only going to give tickets to TDs.

On Monday, GAA Árd Stiúrthóir Páraic Duffy sent a letter to Ms Mulherin rejecting her request for tickets for Sunday’s match, stating the high demand for tickets as the reason.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to facilitate your request as the demand for tickets exceeds the number available,” Mr Duffy wrote.

“At central level, we can only make tickets available for purchase to TDs of competing counties,” he wrote.

“To my mind, that is discrimination against senators, and I can say without any fear of contradiction that senators are as supportive of local GAA clubs and nationally.”

Big Mayo supporter

Ms Mulherin said she was a big supporter of the Mayo team and she attended the Mayo-Tipperary semi-final match and was at one of the earlier Championship rounds.

The Senator, who does not appear to have been active on Twitter in March when she lost her seat as a TD, took to Twitter today to voice her issue with the GAA regarding ticket allocations.

“That has been the precedent every year. This isn’t about me. I didn’t dream this up. This was standard practice.”

Ms Mulherin said “there is blue murder for tickets in Mayo”, but was told by the GAA that the pressure for tickets was coming from Dublin.

When asked whether TDs or senators should get preference for buying tickets, she said: “That’s a matter for Croke Park.”