Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are all supportive of the bid to host the tournament. I echo some of the criticisms of the way it was legislated for. We need to look at the risks. We can certainly see where the benefits are, not least that it is an all-Ireland bid. There are many intangibles, and the key area is risk. Financial risk is one aspect but there are all sorts of other things that have to be considered, such as increased costs of security. Something that comes to mind immediately is that there are some areas where we are deficient. Stadia and sporting facilities can be improved. There is certainly a deficiency in terms of public transport and hotel accommodation and there is no way we are going to play catch-up in the time available. Having said that, when I looked at the bid that France made for the soccer World Cup I noted that while they had great public transport, it was not available when the tournament was on because of industrial disputes. Risk is the issue, and the range of risks that are being considered are the things that we need to be satisfied on. That is the job we are asked to do here.

On ticket pricing there is a parallel between the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and how we conduct our business. It may be possible for us to bid directly. What will be put in place to make sure the risk of selling on tickets at exorbitant prices is avoided? That is something that authorities tried to crack down on during those Olympics. I believe we are being made fools of by this inquiry. There was a three-month deadline, and the Minister would have taken legal advice in advance of that. Names would have always been a part of an inquiry, whether it was statutory or non-statutory. It is completely unsatisfactory that we were given timelines and assurances of all descriptions, but we are still now no nearer to having this published. I am sure the Minster got legal advice in advance. Did that legal advice flag this particular risk, and if that was the case why is there this delay?

The Minister made an announcement yesterday. We were all out in Abbotstown and were hugely impressed with the facilities there. One of the things that impressed us was that it was cross sports and that there was a consolidation rather than the fragmentation that we often see. What was not clear from the Minister's announcement yesterday was that the IRFU, which is going to be hugely supported now by the State and by the public, had said that it would not commence building outdoor pitches until there was clarity on phase two. Is that one of the issues that will be looked at in the context of this bid? It would seem more than unfortunate if the support was coming from one side and then the IRFU decided not to collaborate on the outdoor pitches. That is a really important piece of this campus.