Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Quinlivan on bringing forward the Bill. This area has been in the minds of many young people. If a computer is on in my house late at night, it means someone is trying to buy tickets for something. Broadband comes to mind as an issue because the people in rural Ireland can never seem to get the tickets and we often blame broadband. There is also a tendency to believe in many cases that the tickets are gone because they have been swooped up by people who will then resell them at a major profit.

One thing that strikes me from the debate is that there is a great deal of agreement. Everyone agrees that there is a major problem here, that this problem needs to be addressed and that the proposals brought forward by Deputy Quinlivan go a long way to addressing them.

The issue which jumps to mind immediately is that, as Deputy Seán Crowe stated, so many people are being ripped off. We had a slogan not so long ago about rip-off Ireland. This is the rip-off Ireland that we need to deal with. If we kick this too far down the road and let it go, I firmly believe that the people who are engaged in this sort of thing will have time to come up with other ways of getting around it and working it out. While I fully appreciate the need to ensure that there are no unintended consequences of any kind, at the same time we need to act.

I appreciate what Deputy Niall Collins said, which is that Fianna Fáil supports the Bill but feels that time needs to be allowed for it at the committee. My understanding is that the committee takes plenty of time as it is, without ever putting any limits on matters. That is one of the issues that is raised here regularly. However, the big profiteering that goes on is really the problem. We need to deal with the prices that are being charged at all levels for these tickets. The only way to do that is to put a limit on it. If a person gets a ticket and is going to resell it, he or she should not be able to resell it above a particular limit. I think most people would consider the 10% limit reasonable.

Charities, charity exemptions, raffling tickets, selling tickets in bundles along with a meal and all those sorts of things were mentioned. All of those possibilities can be dealt with on Committee Stage. As we know, the committee will invite various groups to come before it, including, I assume, charity organisations. Deputy Eugene Murphy asked if people would be registering for charitable status. I know of a number of organisations trying to do that with Revenue at the moment. It is such an immense task, given all the legal hurdles they have to jump, that I do not think there will be too many trying to go down that road. I would not be overly concerned in that regard.

I firmly believe that all the issues that have been raised, including those to which the Minister of State referred, can be dealt with on Committee Stage. There is no reason not to move to Committee Stage as quickly as possible. While we have some degree of progress, the truth is that putting a time limit on it - I presume it is a nine-month limit - sets it too far out. If we could find some agreement or arrangement to bring it closer, that would be a way forward.

Deputy Crowe also raised the issue of gambling. I have come across people who have an addiction to gambling and who are also associated with sports. It is all the same world. Many of those people are involved in ticket touting. These are issues that we need to grapple with as quickly as possible.

We should not overstate the scale of the problem. The Minister of State indicated that already. However, while we do not want to overstate the scale of the problem - it may be quite small in one sense - we have to consider the scale of it for the people who run into it. What of the teenager whose heart is set on going to a concert for three or four years because a star is coming to town but discovers that he or she cannot get a ticket because the price is five times face value? A relative, godmother or someone else goes off and pays an exorbitant price for the ticket. It is simply not fair. We need to insert some level of fairness into this because the scale of the problem is huge for those who are caught up in it.

A point was made earlier about the companies that are engaged in this and the loss of jobs. There are two kinds of industries. There is the kind that provides a genuine product or service at a reasonable price that reflects the cost and the effort that goes into the product or service. Then there is the kind of service which is just a rip-off. I do not think we should be promoting or trying to sustain any industry which is setting out to rip people off. We need to be careful that we do not do that in this case.

I commend the Bill as it stands. I understand the amendment is about kicking this down the road a little bit but I think we can come to an arrangement in that regard. I think that is the way forward. I commend Deputy Maurice Quinlivan and other Members who came forward with similar Bills that have not yet reached the floor of this House. A level of agreement is something that we need. When we have it, let us use it and not let it slip through our fingers.

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