Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I put down amendment No. 2 to try to get some clarity and also to cover potential risk. As the Minister said, we are contributing €138 million no matter what, if we win the bid. We potentially have a liability of up to €200 million beyond that and there is possibly another commercial transaction in which we may be involved. Will the Minister provide clarity on one of his comments?

He said we would start to recover some of our money as soon as we got ticket sales. Is this the only source of revenue that would accrue to the State? Would the revenue from other licensing, television, sponsorship, hospitality and all those other arrangements accrue to the State as well or, is getting money back for the State or not having to provide for that indemnity dependent solely on ticket sales? Is all the revenue of the event likely to accrue to the one pot? Is it possible that Rugby World Cup Limited would hold onto some of the commercial rights and not see them go to the joint company between the IRFU, the State and the Northern Ireland Executive? I want this clarified before we sign up to €348 million without knowing what the risk is or where is the actual exposure.

See this speech in context