Mr. Páraic Duffy:

Our rates doubled this year to €1.1 million. While it was a major issue and a blow to us, we had not budgeted for the concerts. The GAA feels bad for the 400,000 people. Everybody in this room knows people who had planned to come home or hold family celebrations, and the sheer disappointment of these people is the worst part of it. It would have been fantastic to have been part of these concerts. It would have been a national celebration and the loss of that is the worst of it. The GAA is not the loser. The money is irrelevant. We feel a sense of loss for the 400,000 people, particularly the 70,000 who were coming from abroad, the many Irish people who were coming home for their holidays around the concerts. They are the real losers.

With a little flexibility, this could easily have been avoided, notwithstanding the fact that the legislative frameworks applied. All along, we thought there would be five concerts, and at some point it was reduced to three. Had the council approached us and said it was thinking of reducing the number from five to three, Aiken Promotions and we would have asked what we needed to do to reassure the council, and would have done whatever it would have taken, for the 400,000 people. However, we were not given the opportunity. The news came out of the blue, the decision was taken, it was signed off and there was no appeal. The end was very abrupt.