Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I think the key word she used was "inflated" because we are not talking about tickets going on sale for €70 and being resold for €85. We are talking about €70 tickets being bought en masseby companies that may or may not have privileged access to the monopoly seller and then being resold not for €80 but for €1,000.

I agree with Deputy Rock with regard to consultation. I am not entirely sure that a lengthy period of consultation is required. If we use the legislative process, we could deal with many of the submissions on Report Stage. The Minister is taking the consultation approach. What are the timelines for the consultation process? When will we be able to debate the findings on the floor of the House? What can be done by the Government in the short term? We all know that consultation processes and follow-up legislative processes can take time. I wrote to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission last week to ascertain whether any illegality is happening at present. I would like the Minister to give us her thoughts on what she and her Government colleagues can do now to send these companies a clear message in the short term that this sort of behaviour needs to stop.

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