Ms Clare McNamara:

That is a good question. I will deal with the designated venues aspect of it first. This approach has been taken principally for the reasons set out in Mr. Newham's opening statement. First, the evidence available to the Department suggests that above-sale-price resale affects only a very small proportion of the thousands of ticketed events that take place in a normal year, so it is good regulatory practice to regulate only where it is necessary. Second, the monitoring of compliance with this legislation would be much easier and more effective if the prohibition on above-sale-price resale prices applied only to tickets available in a publicly available list of known venues. On the balance of looking at administrative burdens on businesses, it is worth noting that the Act will impose certain information requirements on the primary ticket sellers and it would be disproportionate to require small venues to comply with those requirements, especially given that they might never host any event that gives rise to above-sale-price resale.

On the threshold, the evidence available to the Department suggests that above-sale-price resales occur wholly or mainly in venues with a capacity of 1,000 or more. A small number of venues with a capacity below that threshold might occasionally hold events that see some level of resale. That is why head 17 of the Bill provides that the Minister can designate a venue which has not been the subject of an application for designation. That is intended to cover venues with a capacity below 1,000 as well as venues with a capacity above that figure where the operators have not applied for designation. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.