Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for attending the meeting. We have received two very interesting presentations. We heard Mr. Keegan's presentation yesterday. To say that there are differences is to put it mildly. The critical one is Mr. McKenna's regarding the telephone call during which he was assured that the five concerts would be looked on favourably. It was a telephone conversation, so it was an oral commitment, possibly. This is an issue I raised yesterday with Mr. Keegan. If I intended to build an extension to my house on the Beara Peninsula in west Cork I would have the option of going through a pre-planning consultation, and there would be minutes of that. All the issues would be written down and, like them or lump them, one would have a fair idea of what to do to inform the next decision. For something as fundamentally important to Dublin and Ireland as this concert, as Mr. Aiken has passionately outlined, there is nothing to go on except what Mr. McKenna said that Mr. Keegan said and what Mr. Keegan said.

Mr. Keegan in his statement yesterday said, "It is difficult for me to understand how, in the face of real evidence of disquiet among local residents, the promoters would have anticipated no difficulty in securing an event licence for the five concerts." Then he gave a verbal commitment that the five concerts would be allowed. Sometimes people will change their minds, but there is a fundamental lack of a proper system of licensing or an overarching document or strategy that can inform both the promoter for that or any other event and the residents as to what would be reasonable or possible. It could provide a template for conversations as issues such as this arise. That is something everybody will have to grapple with, although it is debatable whether we will get another opportunity to have something as big as Garth Brooks's five concerts.

Mr. Aiken's presentation is very interesting. It is a timeline or chronology of what happened. He mentioned that on Wednesday, 5 February, he held a meeting at Croke Park with the Croke Park personnel and the Garda. Was Dublin City Council represented at that meeting?