Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Rock for his work on this Bill. It seeks to address an issue in what is a complicated market in respect of which some very serious comments were made recently in the House of Commons, including allegations of complicity by re-sellers working with organised touts who are breaking the law and very serious allegations about links between profits being made in this industry and Dublin-based paramilitaries and armed organisations in Israel. As such, we need to take this issue very seriously.

The power of the Bill is in its simplicity in that what it essentially provides is that in most cases a ticket must be resold at the original cost. In other words, a person is not permitted to purchase 20, 100 or 1,000 tickets at a cost of €80 each and then re-sell them to fans at a cost of €1,000 each. My understanding is that the Government is supportive of the direction of the Bill but that there are technical issues that will need to be addressed on Second and Committee Stages, including re-sellers moving out of this jurisdiction and how that can be addressed. However, this Bill will send out the very clear signal that it will be illegal for anyone to engage, in an organised way, in the block-buying of tickets for music or sports events and to re-sell them with a profiteering motive. I look forward to the Bill's passage through the House.

I draw the attention of the Taoiseach and the Government Chief Whip, Deputy Regina Doherty, that while ticket touting relative to some of the issues discussed in this Parliament in the last few weeks and to be discussed today is a niche issue, having heard the testimony from the UK House of Commons that the profits from this are being linked to Dublin-based to paramilitaries I would ask that this Bill be given a higher level of consideration by the Business Committee than it would otherwise be given. I again thank Deputy Rock for his work on this Bill.

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