Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The elder lemon goes first. I welcome the Bill and thank my colleague, Deputy Quinlivan, for bringing it forward. There is an urgency in this matter. The legislation has two main objectives. It will protect the ordinary consumer who buys a ticket in good faith only to discover he or she cannot attend the event. It would also ensure that people will be able to dispose of their tickets within a suggested 10% profit margin. It will stop those who purchase event tickets with the sole intention of selling them on for a profit. The Bill is intended to disincentivise ticket touting by the introduction of substantial fines.

It is timely that we tackle the ticket rip-off chancers who increasingly charge outrageous prices for tickets to entertainment and sport events in Ireland.

Part of the difficulty is that, with the advances in technology, the practice has grown from the idea of traditional touts selling counterfeit, cancelled or other tickets outside venues to online sites. We have all come across those who appeal for anyone looking for a spare ticket; it is the usual thing. This takes place in a grey or non-existent area of regulation. This grey area with the associated technology and so on has spurred the concern of many people.

Each time tickets go for sale for a concert or sporting event a news report usually follows outlining how the tickets have sold out. I listened to what the Minister of State said. He suggested this was only for some concerts and so on. It may be part of a selling ploy. I acknowledge the Minister of State referred to a mismatch and demand and supply. Furthermore, he said 20 submissions were made on the site. However, if he went online or took to social media, he would know far more than 20 people are discussing this issue and they all have their stories. The fact that people did not make a submission on the Department website or engage in that process does not mean we can dismiss this or that it is not a problem.

Despite the best efforts of people in queuing or arranging to buy tickets online on the morning of sale, they have no chance of getting a result because of the misuse by secondary sellers. I am unsure whether the Minister of State has ever tried it, but I have tried it for various things I wanted to get. This is how it appears to me as a consumer.

The ongoing problem was highlighted in recent months. After tickets for music festivals like Electric Picnic sold out within minutes, the same tickets appeared immediately afterwards on ticket re-selling sites for far higher prices.

I listened to the Minister of State talk about pushing it down the road for a further nine or 12 months. The difficulty is that, as the Minister of State is aware, we are facing into a concert season. Again, I am conscious of young people being ripped off. Weekend camping tickets for Electric Picnic went on sale at a price of €246.10, including charges. Yet, on the same day, tickets were widely available on re-selling sites at inflated prices. I am informed that tickets were on sale on www.seatwave.ie, a Ticketmaster-owned company. I am uncomfortable about that connection. On the one hand, a company is selling tickets, but then another linked company is selling the same tickets for €474.98 only hours after the original tickets went on sale. Those were the prices for a weekend camping ticket. The same tickets were also selling on another site for a whopping €542.36. These opportunistic money-grabbing chancers are preventing genuine concert-goers and sporting enthusiasts from the opportunity to attend events. This needs to be tackled head-on.

This Bill will, I hope, close the loopholes that allow this practice and will begin to address it. I use the term "I hope" because there is such potential for money to be made that those involved will probably come up with a different angle. As legislators, we need to examine this area and adapt the legislation as we go along.

I welcome the recent comments of Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions, one of the country's music promoters, on the need for regulation of ticket selling. This was mentioned earlier in the debate. He has been at this game for a lifetime. He is concerned and has spoken out against the use of secondary ticket selling sites such as www.seatwave.ieand www.getmein.comafter tickets for U2 and Ed Sheeran were being touted for over €1,000 on the Internet. One could say that we should let the market decide and so on and I have heard of the possibility of a constitutional issue. What are people saying? Are we going to do something or kick it down the road? My view is that we need to do something. We have seen the demand for tickets. No one has mentioned it, but let us discuss the elephant in the room: Garth Brooks. Who remembers that? There was extraordinary demand. Even though there were many tickets over many nights, that was a phenomenon in itself.

I imagine companies like Ticketmaster would not be happy with this legislation, but so what? We put in legislation all the time that companies are not happy with. I believe that concert-goers and young people who buy tickets for different events and so on would be over the moon if we gave a commitment to do something about it. Exorbitant profits are being made. Again, we should ask whether Revenue is aware of these sites and the profits and so on. I would like to think that Revenue is following up on some of these sites that are making major profits in the region of 20 or 30 times the initial price. It is wrong and that is where I am coming from.

While I have the opportunity, I want to discuss the issue of gambling, which was mentioned already, and addiction in sport. There is urgent need for legislation to address the glamorisation of gambling and to help curb gambling addiction, which is negatively affecting so many families and individuals throughout the State. While many punters going to sporting events will enjoy the atmosphere and place modest bets on races, many others from all walks of life have a gambling problem or addition that will affect their families and loved ones for their entire lives. Yet, a vast amount of these sporting events and concerts are sponsored by gambling companies. The easy accessibility and normalisation of online and offline betting is a curse for many families and individuals. In other EU countries health warnings follow gambling and the associated dangers. These warnings alert the viewers to the dangers of gambling. Ireland needs to follow suit. Legislation is coming down the tracks. However, it would be wrong for us to leave this aspect out of the debate. Gambling and online betting can bring short joy to some but unfortunately many lives have been destroyed by this addiction. It is time that we finally legislate and tackle the gambling addition that we are facing in our society.

I welcome this legislation. There is considerable expectation that we will do something on this question. The concern I have is that if we push it down the line too far, we may not have a government and we will be into the next phase and so on. Another point arises if we do not act. It is important that we engage in dotting the i's and crossing the t's but people are getting ripped off. That is the major concern. That is where I am coming from. We are not talking about a few euro here or there; the money is considerable. This is a phenomenon that has to be tackled. What is unfolding is wrong.

Let us examine what is done in other jurisdictions. If they can get it right in this area, then we can too. We need to start acting and doing something. We can move forward with this Bill to Committee Stage, where it can be teased out and so on. We need to do this. There is considerable expectation that this going to happen sooner rather than later.

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