Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Let me deal first with Deputy Troy's questions on the budget, broadband etc. and who will pay for it. The tournament company will pay that cost, which will be part of the budget. That cost covers all the infrastructure the Deputy indicated will be necessary.

I will leave the question on a swimming pool in my constituency as that is a local authority matter. The ratio of games it is proposed to hold here versus Northern Ireland is 88:12. A question was asked concerning responsibility in the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive. As the Executive is not in place, power has been transferred to senior civil servants who will be able to act in place of the Executive. A letter was received from all the main political parties pledging their support for this in the event of the Executive returning. In the event that it does not return, I do not foresee a difficulty with this matter as the top civil servants in Northern Ireland can sign off on the deal. We will take the primary role if the problem in Northern Ireland is not resolved. We would then do a side deal with Northern Ireland, which would act as secondary guarantor. We would give the full guarantee in such a scenario.

All members asked questions on ticket prices. Let us be straight on this issue. This is market-led and is meant to make a profit. It is not intended that it will operate at a loss for anybody. The ticket prices will be market-led but competitively priced. Many projections have been done on this issue. On the basis that the tickets will be competitively priced, all the projections that have been done show we should make a profit when prices are lower than at previous Rugby World Cup tournaments.