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

I acknowledge the work Deputies Rock and Donnelly have done. I genuinely believe they have an interest in solving the problem. Unfortunately the Minister has left. I will probably write to her or contact her to discuss the issue. While we are discussing ticket touting again, we are no closer to solving the problem.

The glacial pace the Government have moved on this issue is ridiculous, with consumers continuing to pay the price at the hands of ticket touts in the absence of any legislation. As the Minister of State will be well aware, I introduced a Bill on this topic two years ago. However, at every opportunity Fine Gael sought to delay the progress of that Bill, simply because it had a Sinn Féin Deputy’s name on it.

First the Government, supported by Fianna Fáil, introduced an amendment on Second Stage that delayed the Bill for nine months for no reason whatsoever. Then the Government refused to issue a money message to allow it to proceed to Committee Stage, despite the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation carrying out detailed scrutiny on the Bill. The committee’s report recommended "that ticket touting legislation is introduced immediately to ensure consumers are protected". The committee recognised that, "if introduced, the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017 [the Bill I introduced] would help eliminate the problem of ticket touting in Ireland".

This behaviour by Fine Gael, of using the money message procedure to kill Opposition Bills such as this Bill and a number of others is a far cry from the new politics we were promised. The new politics only seems to apply between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which is unsurprising considering the two parties are slowly merging into one.

One could be forgiven for not realising the Government has actually been the biggest obstacle to eliminating ticket touting in recent years. As Deputy Donnelly mentioned, Deputy Naughten introduced a Bill in 1998 and 21 years later we are still talking about it.

This duplication of Bills on the same topic is not a valuable use of Dáil time, especially considering we have only 21 Dáil sitting days, including today, before Brexit on 29 March. Although I fully appreciate the problem of ticket touting is very important and needs to be resolved as soon as possible, I think it would be more valuable to be debating today the emergency Brexit legislation that will be needed for businesses across Ireland, rather than going through the motions again with another Bill on ticket touting.

It is peculiar that the Government is proceeding with a Bill that it admits is not currently fit for purpose and that needs substantial amendments. Why did the Government simply not introduce a new Bill that would be ready to go? We have not seen any of the amendments and have only read about them in press releases. Will they change the substantive nature of the Bill, including importantly the size of venues that will be covered by it? From what I have heard the Bill will no longer protect venues seating 300 or more, but only venues with a capacity of 1,000 or more.

I also understand new sections relating to bot software will be introduced on Committee or Report Stage. I expect this will be a complex addition to the Bill and it would have been useful to see this in advance of tonight’s debate. If the Government is insistent on starting the whole process again and delaying the introduction of a prohibition on ticket touting, would it not be more prudent to introduce a Bill that is actually complete, which we can fully consider and debate thoroughly?

The Government’s petty behaviour about Opposition Bills and subsequent delay in sorting this issue has resulted in thousands of consumers being ripped off by ticket touts in the past few years. We have seen it again this week with different matches and concerts going on.

Information I received indicates that 1,006 complaints have been lodged with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission since 2014 on the issue, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many thousands of others have been ripped off, but made no complaints.

I now turn to the provisions of the Bill. Under section 2(1), will an online site that hosts advertisements for tickets and other items for sale be liable for conviction under this legislation simply by hosting an advertisement with a ticket priced in excess of the designated price? I am specifically talking about the offence in the section that refers to “sell, or offer, or expose for sale”. If so how would this be enforced and, if not, does the Minster believe this section needs to be clarified?

What would constitute a “voluntary or community organisation” as stated in section 2(3)? How many organisations will this cover?

I do not understand the rationale behind the increased capacity from 300 to 1,000. Does this mean that tickets for events in smaller venues will not be protected by this legislation? If so, this will exclude dozens of theatres and event venues around the country, including the National Opera House in Waterford with 855 seats, the Tivoli in Dublin with 560 seats, the Lime Tree in Limerick with 511 seats and the Abbey in Dublin with 494 seats. I do not understand why the Government is now proposing a change to this Bill that would result in a large cohort of events excluded from the protections the legislation seeks to introduce.

The Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017, which I introduced, includes a confiscation provision that would give the courts the power to recover profits they determine a convicted ticket tout may have gained from his or her illegal behaviour. Was such a provision considered for this Bill?

We understand there has been a strong lobby from secondary selling sites regarding legislating in this area. We have all been lobbied on the matter. I do not know whether what they claim is correct. There have been some suggestions that jobs could be lost owing to the total ban on above-face-value sales of tickets. Has the Minister examined this claim? I ask her to clarify the role secondary selling sites have played in her preparation of this Bill. What interactions has she had with these companies?

I register my dissatisfaction with how the Government behaved regarding the Bill I introduced on this topic and many other Opposition Bills. The use of the money message procedure to kill Opposition Bills is not in the public interest and this tactic should be stopped.

However, Sinn Féin recognises the importance of solving the problem of ticket touting and we are therefore happy to facilitate this Bill moving to Committee Stage. It is important to note that this is not an endorsement of the Bill because as I have pointed out, we have yet to see key aspects that apparently will form a large part of this Bill. We look forward to seeing those amendments. We may table amendments on Committee and Report Stages.

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