Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Maybe Deputies think that is okay because that is the market at work but the guy selling the tickets also thinks that is the market at work.

As I said before, I hate paying above the odds for a ticket and I generally do not do it.

If I cannot get it for a fair price, I do not go in. There is something seriously wrong that we have no control in this area, in the same way as we have little control over the insurance industry. It is not properly regulated. Motor insurance in Ireland is three times more than it is in Italy for a similar car.

As mentioned by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan if Bruce Springsteen comes to town the price of a ticket is more than double what it is when he plays in the San Siro, the football stadium in Milan where he plays on his European tour. The tickets are over double the price in Dublin. Maybe the Government thinks that is fine as well. As pointed out by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, there is serious extortion on the face value of tickets. Maybe we should do something about that.

This legislation will not achieve what it says on the tin because the guy who is selling rugby tickets for €500 each for Irish games will sell the tickets at face value and give a lunch voucher with them and charge through the nose for the lunch. Also, where a person applies to a company for two tickets for a rugby match and the company selling them wants to charge €1,000 for the pair even though the original price per ticket was €120 the seller will put a pen in with the tickets and charge a crazy price for the pen and face value for the tickets. How will the Government handle that? Is there a way around it?

As I said earlier, I think we should be wary of introducing legislation that we cannot make stand up. I do not see how this is going to work. I am curious to see the Government amendments and what impact they might have. I do not know whether some people will be able to make money by selling on tickets or if everybody will be stopped from making money from selling on tickets. Perhaps someone will fill me in on that. This is a difficult area.

It is illegal to sell drugs in this town. Does the Government believe that if we make it illegal to charge over the face value for a ticket it will stop it happening? I do not. They never sold as much whiskey in America as they did when they made it illegal. Sales went through the roof. It was illegal but sales were magnificent. I believe in legalising the drugs trade. I think it is nuts that it is illegal to sell drugs in this town and yet every Tom, Dick and Harry can get them. It is the easiest thing in the world to get them even though it is illegal. I know a young fella who was sick as a dog last weekend. He bought hash and it was badly contaminated by some other substance and it almost poisoned him. We should regulate the drugs industry. We should legalise and tax the sale and import of drugs and bring it under the umbrella of Government. We sell alcohol. There is hardly a day goes by that I do not have a drink so I have no problem with alcohol. I have not heard a good argument as to why we continue to make the sale of drugs illegal. By regulating the industry, we could control the quality of the drugs and stop people selling inferior or contaminated products and we could impose high taxes on them, in the same way as we do on cigarettes.

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