Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Grace for his presentation. To be honest, I am not particularly impressed with some of the points Mr. Grace made in it.

This meeting is to discuss the sale of tickets but many of the points Mr. Grace made have little or nothing to do with the provisions of the Bill. For example, in paragraph one of page 3 of his opening statement, Mr. Grace mentions the issue of demand and the fact that the GAA cannot put on an extra all-Ireland final. Nobody is suggesting anything of the sort and this Bill has nothing to do with demand. We are not suggesting everyone gets a ticket to everything. This Bill is about capping the outrageous prices people are being asked to pay. I do not know what point Mr. Grace was trying to make about the all-Ireland finals but they have nothing to do with the provisions of this Bill.

In paragraph one on page 4, Mr. Grace states that "ticket reselling above face value is permitted in all European Union and European Economic Area countries", and then goes on to list Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France Portugal, Poland and Norway as exceptions to this. That is an odd way of phrasing it. Also in this paragraph, Mr. Grace states that the legislation in these countries has been "reasonably effective in preventing prohibited resale activity", but then goes on to discuss all activities outside their border. This is also a positive point being phrased as negative.

In paragraph two, also on page 4, Mr. Grace mentions this could affect tourism. It is a stretch to suggest capping the price of tickets will affect tourism. It will, in fact, benefit tourists who can buy reasonably priced tickets. I worked in the travel sector for 19 years. I know exactly how one sells tickets. One sells them with tour organisers as well. One does not have to sell them with the extra 10%, if people want to do that. People can buy tickets abroad and come over here as well. It is not a problem. Mr. Grace is imagining problems that do not exist.

Tourists arrive here already with tickets they have bought only to be turned away when they are cancelled. We need to look at that issue. That is currently leaving a bad taste in the mouths of tourists mouth if they bought tickets for variety or another event and cannot access it because they bought them from someone other than the original seller. If one planned on banning selling tickets to tourists, that could possibly affect tourists. However, it also has nothing whatsoever to do with this Bill.

In paragraph three of page 4, Mr. Grace also mentions that "the Bill would help to reduce the level of above face value resale, it is unlikely to eliminate it entirely". No law eliminates everything entirely. I do not see any point in that either. I have stated repeatedly that this Bill will not solve everything but it will help substantially.

I have a number of questions for Mr. Grace. On page two of his opening statement, Mr. Grace mentions the Department got data from Ticketmaster and other sites about the Coldplay and U2 concerts. Could Mr. Grace share that data or information the Department got from them with us?

In paragraph two on page three, Mr. Grace mentioned people could go to other websites based outside the country to buy tickets. In my experience, most people buy from Irish sites due to the trust issues. Has Mr. Grace examples of these foreign-based sites being used widely?

In paragraph two on page 4, Mr. Grace states that 66% of tickets sold for U2 and Coldplay were sold to persons outside the country. That seems to be a considerable number. Can Mr. Grace explain where he got that figure from?

On the last page of his statement, Mr. Grace mentioned the departure of secondary marketplaces from the Irish market. I am conscious of this because one of them is in my constituency. This Bill will not ban reselling but will merely cap the prices. Why would they leave? Tickets can still be sold, but not for outrageous prices. Is this one of the reasons the Department is not acting on this issue because I do not believe the Department is? Is there any threat from companies that if something is done, they will leave. Should we continue to let consumers be ripped off?

Can the Department give a reason that there is no money message? Is this a political decision?

There are two final questions I have on the Bill. What was the level of lobbying? We have the submissions to the Department. There were 24 submissions. From my recollection of it, 12 of them were in favour of a version of this Bill, nine were neutral and only three were against - all three were from secondary selling sites. Mr. Grace might tell us what level of lobbying the Department received on this issue. Mr. Grace stated in his statement that the Department got detailed information from Ticketmaster. Can he share that with us?