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

We welcome anything that resolves this issue and makes progress as the Bill attempts to do. I know that in the past Deputy Quinlivan has also made strides in that direction.

In the past ten to 15 years as online booking has come increasingly into play we have had a problem. Prior to that people had to go to the local shop that had the agency for supplying tickets. They queued up there and bought them, as Deputy Donnelly mentioned earlier. We have seen significant problems online, particularly for people living in rural areas with very bad broadband. Sometimes my teenage children try to buy tickets online. If they are doing so at the wrong time in the evening when others are also on the Internet, they find it very difficult to get things moving.

Tickets are being bought in bulk, sometimes by the same company that is selling them. It is putting them up for sale again in another company's name at an inflated price. That problem has been there for far too long and it cannot be allowed to continue. I welcome this move forward. The quicker this issue can be resolved the better. At the end of the day we are talking about people who want to go out and enjoy themselves at a football match, concert or whatever, but they find that they are being ripped off. There is a great sense of disappointment in that and a sense that the system does not protect them. That is what this is about.

I again commend Deputies Donnelly and Rock on introducing the Bill in an attempt to resolve the situation. I also acknowledge Deputy Quinlivan's work. We need to get into the detail of it as quickly as possible and get it passed. It has been too long lying around, with waiting and talking but nothing happening.

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