Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Bill was never intended to sort all the problems but to start the process of addressing the problems. The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Doyle, in his submission as part of the Government's consultation process basically stated that legislation needs to be urgently implemented in order to prevent the secondary sale of tickets at inflated prices online and outside of venues.

Kicking it down the road by nine months does not show any urgency. This is a huge problem.

I mentioned the Rugby World Cup earlier, which is another big problem coming up. World Rugby will make a decision as to what country will hold the 2023 Rugby World Cup this November. By kicking this down the road by nine months, no progress on legislation on ticket touting will have progressed by then. This could affect the overall decision. I am not saying it will, but that is the concern I have. France, which is another candidate for the Rugby World Cup, has strong ticket touting legislation already in place. If the Minister of State kicks the can down the road for nine months, it will be a regrettable decision. We will all regret it. Everything in the Minister of State's amendment can be dealt with on Committee Stage so, again, I do not know why he proposes in the amendment that the Bill be deemed to be read a Second Time in nine months' time. Fianna Fáil indicated it might favour a shorter time but did not say what that would be. We are open to a shorter time but we will press this if the Minister of State holds out for nine months because that is far too long.

I commend everyone who spoke in this debate, including Deputy Eugene Murphy, Deputy Niall Collins, Deputy Crowe, Deputy Martin Kenny and the Minister of State. We have outlined our position. We put the Bill forward in good faith. We believe all the issues in the Government amendment can be discussed in committee but nine months is far too long.

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