Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He was. He was very excited about it and I am glad to realise it.

As I said to the Minister when he contacted me over the past number of days and when he came before the committee, we as a party will support this legislation because we think it is very important and fundamental in underpinning the bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which is one of the world's major sporting events, as the Minister said. It is a fantastic opportunity and offers huge potential for the island of Ireland to demonstrate all that we have to offer. I compliment the team headed up by former Tánaiste, Dick Spring, the ambassador, Brian O'Driscoll, Philip Browne of the IRFU and the many others who are involved with this bid.

A lot of preparatory work has gone into this bid going back many years. When we look back, the formal bid was launched in December 2014. That is two and a half years ago. It was the fourth quarter of 2015 when public sectors in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland came together to ensure a speedy delivery of the Government's commitment to this bid. That is where the only negative lies, which is somewhat regrettable. That is the fact that this legislation is coming in at the 11th hour. We have to ask the question. Despite the fact that the Minister's officials sought assurances from the Attorney General, why did it take until April of this year for the Attorney General to be confident in her advice to the officials in the Minister's Department? It is not good enough. It looks amateurish. Who is going to be held to account for the misinformation and the delay in time? Even at that late stage, last week, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport chose to prioritise the Judicial Appointments Bill even though this Bill was ready to come before the House. Where was the Minister's excitement for this critical legislation last week? We should have debated Second Stage of this legislation last Tuesday night in the Dáil. It would have enabled a longer period of time for scrutiny.

I acknowledge that the Minister's officials came before the Oireachtas committee and facilitated a time that suited me in order to give a briefing on this legislation. However, there are other Members of the Dáil who have an interest in this legislation. There are Members of the Dáil who did not have the opportunity to go to the transport briefing last week. I know from having met with the IRFU how excited, eager and fully prepared it is, and it has been very complimentary of the GAA and the FAI, but more so to the GAA, for making their stadia available. I want to acknowledge that today. However, I do not get that same confidence and excitement from the Minister, despite what he said earlier.

This tournament has huge potential. It has potential in the 800 million people that make up its broadcast audience throughout the world. There is phenomenal potential to market the island of Ireland as a whole. We anticipate 445,000 international visitors. Again, that offers huge potential to us as a country. The matches are going to be played in anything between eight and ten venues, ensuring that it will be inclusive and spread throughout north, south, east and west of the country. The 45 team training grounds will ensure that every county in every region stands to benefit from the hosting of the Rugby World Cup. As an island nation, we are lucky that we are so well served from the point of view of 273 direct destinations by air and another 1,200 destinations serviced indirectly. We also have 5.2 million passengers that come directly by ferry. We are ideally placed. As I said, the only difficulty is that we are a little late with this legislation.

Turning to the legislation itself, I understand that we have completed two of the three phases, the applicant phase and the candidate phase. This is now part of the evaluation phase. This legislation guarantees payment of the tournament fee of €120 million. It will also underwrite the tournament budget. We have not been made aware of what exactly the tournament budget is, and I understand that is for competitive reasons. Perhaps the Minister will clarify that point.

The Bill also gives an undertaking with regard to the support of the public services for the tournament. Perhaps the Minister could indicate what public services are going to be improved. Are we talking about the improvement of public transport to a certain venue? Are we talking about ensuring that wherever the international teams are training, they will have adequate and sufficient broadband to match what they are used to in their country of origin? Are we talking about installing public lighting? Perhaps the Minister will elaborate on what exactly that will be.

The Department gave an indication of the sequence and timeline of the advice from the Attorney General. I highlighted that already. It is welcome that the misinformation was identified before it was too late and that the Minister has decided to err on the side of caution and produce this legislation.

With regard to the Bill, it is planned that the tournament company will externally source its cash flow requirements prior to the receipt of ticket sales. Where does the Minister plan to source the cash flow requirements prior to ticket sales? My understanding from the briefing, though perhaps I was wrong, was that the main source of funding for us as the host nation will be the ticket sales. I read an article in The Guardianby Robert Kitson, who highly recommends Ireland as head and shoulders above the other two countries in the final stages. He raised an interesting question. As a country with a population of 6.1 million on our island, how can we guarantee that games such as Tonga versus Uruguay will have a sell-out crowd? Let us compare that to a country like Great Britain with a population in excess of 60 million, where there are people who do not have to travel that same distance and would quite easily go to a game such as that. For instance, if Tonga and Uruguay were playing in Derry, how could we guarantee that we would have sufficient numbers going to that match? Is that being taken into account in terms of the estimated figures of attendance and tickets sales of 450,000?

The Bill enables the Minister to support the potential purchase of commercial rights held by Rugby World Cup Limited, rights by a tournament company or another entity if it is deemed appropriate to directly purchase commercial rights. What commercial rights are we talking about? It is stated that there are a number of these rights. Perhaps the Minister could clarify exactly what rights they are.

The Minister made comparisons to previous world cups. I gave the example of comparing Ireland to Great Britain. We have a population of 6.1 million while Great Britain has a population in excess of 60 million. How can we ensure that we are comparing like with like?

With regard to television rights and free-to-air television, I understand the bid for the 2019 Rugby World Cup has been won by Eir Sport. However, 13 out of the 48 games will still be free to air. Will that still be the case for the Irish Rugby World Cup, if we are successful, in 2023?

I also wish to ask about our accommodation. We are talking about attracting a huge number of people to our country. Can we be sure that we will have sufficient capacity to cater for them?

8 o’clock

In the event of an act of terrorism or a natural catastrophe, such as the ash cloud leading to people not being able to come to the tournament, what insurance is in place to ensure that we will not have to call in our guarantee?

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