John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before I hand over the to the members, I want to clarify a number of matters.

I also wish to ask a few questions. We received a letter on Friday from Dublin City Council asking about members of the committee who were also members of the GAA. I want to point out clearly that I am a member of the GAA, have always been and probably will always be, but I had no hand, act or part in any decision or negotiations. My main involvement during the years was as a team manager. Anybody familiar with the GAA knows that team managers have very little influence in Croke Park. I had tickets for the Garth Brooks concerts, but I paid for them.

Many members have indicated that they wish to speak. I will take them in the order in which they indicated: Deputies Timmy Dooley, Paudie Coffey, Mary Lou McDonald, Helen McEntee, Mick Wallace, Patrick O'Donovan, Noel Harrington and Tom Fleming. I ask members to limit their contributions to three minutes because there is huge interest in this issue and I want to ensure everybody will get in.

Why we have invited Dublin City Council officials to come before us is to establish the facts and chain of events involved, as Mr. Keegan has done, which led to the concerts being cancelled. The situation was evolving in recent days and last night the concerts were cancelled. Many issues must be teased out. What consultation took place between the promoter and Croke Park in advance of arranging the initial three concerts? Mr. Keegan has indicated that informal consultation took place and I would like him to outline what form it took. Given that three One Direction concerts have already taken place this year, did consultation or discussions take place before tickets for the additional fourth and fifth Garth Brooks concerts were sold? Will the officials clarify whether a verbal assurance was given by anybody in Dublin City Council at any stage that the five concerts could go ahead? I clarified the issue of any possible conflict of interest I had and wish to ask whether any of the officials live beside Croke Park. If so, do they believe this would be of help in making a decision or could it be a conflict of interest? What, in the opinion of the officials, needs to be done to avoid this type of fiasco happening again? If the five concerts were to go ahead, what would be the financial benefit for Dublin City Council? I had a question on forged submissions, but it has been dealt with.