Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's question, I will have to go back and check the note I got from my Department at the time. My understanding was that this is a consolidation between Charleville and Naas and they would offer voluntary redundancies and redeployment in the first instance, not that compulsory redundancies would be ruled out. I will double-check and come back to the Deputy on that.

On the Bill, I thank Deputies for their strong support and comments. The question of clarity on the definition around charitable organisations, secondary marketplaces etc. have been noted by my officials and will be examined before Committee Stage.

As I said in moving the Bill, we believe it will act as a deterrent to gougers and opportunists who buy up tickets at the expense of sports and music fans, sporting bodies, artists and promoters. I look forward to working with the House during the Committee and Report Stages of the Bill, including on any amendments that may be proposed. As I mentioned, the Bill underwent pre-legislative scrutiny by the joint committee and has been adapted to reflect several of the recommendations in the committee's report, so I hope we can have cross-party support to ensure we get this Bill enacted before the recess and as soon as possible so that genuine fans are protected.

One of the amendments to the Private Members Bill approved by the Government in 2018 related to the prohibition on the use of bots to circumvent limits on the number of permitted ticket purchases. In 2019 the EU adopted legislation requiring member states to introduce a similar prohibition. That legislation took the form of an amendment to the unfair commercial practices directive which Deputy Murphy mentioned earlier, which is given effect here in the Consumer Protection Act 2007. Additional requirements apply to the provisions of the EU consumer protection law in areas such as consumer protection co-operation and penalties which do not apply to the provisions of purely domestic legislation. It is preferable, therefore, to include the provision on bots in amendments to the Consumer Protection Act which, along with a number of other amendments to the unfair commercial practices directives, forms part of the general scheme of a new consumer rights Bill. This was recently approved by the Government for drafting and should be enacted by the end of the year or the first half of next year. Bots are used to purchase tickets from the primary seller and this legislation before the House deals with secondary ticket resale. Therefore, even if bots are used to purchase tickets initially, this Bill, once enacted, will cover the resale of such tickets for a price above the original sale price.

In response to some of the earlier contributions, I neglected to mention in my opening remarks that Deputy Quinlivan had also proposed a Private Members Bill on this matter and I acknowledge that now.

Like Deputy O'Reilly, I also want to see some sporting and artistic events being piloted this summer. We have seen this in other countries. We are ahead of them in terms of vaccines and getting the incidence of the virus down, and I do not see why we should not now try to catch up with them in putting on some different events. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, has an interest on that in the sporting and artistic side. Leinster Rugby has made proposals that I think are worthy of consideration although there may not be matches left to do that, but I am sure we will find an appropriate fixture through the GAA or somebody else down the line.

I heard what the Deputy said about arts. I would like to point out that in 2017 I made a commitment as Taoiseach that we would double spending on the arts by 2025. We actually got there last year. That is not acknowledged much but the budget for arts, culture and heritage in 2020 was more than double what it was in 2017. Yes, some of that is one-off funding relating to the pandemic, is being repeated this year and will not be retained forever, but I still see us coming out of this pandemic with a much higher budget for arts, culture and heritage than we had going into it and meeting the commitment to double spending in 2017 through to 2025. It is not recognised much and I think it should be. I can understand why people in any sector will always campaign for more funding for their sector, but a bit of acknowledgement when they get a huge or substantial increase might be a wise lobbying strategy.

Similarly, sports have seen a big increase in funding, particularly for women's sport and sport for children. We have massive capital programmes in arts and sports and our national cultural institutions. The National Gallery has had a fabulous new extension and work is due to begin soon on the National Concert Hall. There are really exciting plans to replace the Abbey Theatre. Not all of this is in Dublin. There are big investments in sports campuses and sporting facilities throughout the country through the large-scale sports infrastructure fund.

Deputy Richmond mentioned the law of unintended consequences, which we always debate in this House. We never debate one law but two, when we debate the unintended consequences. I will double-check on raffles but I am comfortable there will not be any restrictions on raffles by charities or sports clubs because a raffle is not a resale of a ticket, it is a competition.

Deputy Lowry mentioned the possibility that charities and sports clubs could be used as a loophole to create a secondary market. We need to bear in mind that possibility. We will consider that between now and the conclusion of this Bill.

I very much agree with what Deputy Catherine Murphy said about the events sector. It is a sector that we all really appreciate. It has given us the best days, evenings and weekends of our lives in many cases. I really look forward to the return of mass events and major events. The pandemic has been devastating for the businesses and staff in the sector. Financial support, including the PUP, is available from the Government. The wage subsidy scheme applies to all companies with a turnover that is down by 30% or more. Those that have a rateable premises benefit from the CRSS, although I appreciate that many do not. The small business assistance scheme for Covid, SBASC, is also available. We appreciate, however, that, even now, some businesses are falling between two stools so I am considering what we can do in phase 2 of the SBASC, particularly for businesses that do not operate from a rateable premises or that may be vehicle-based. The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, hopes to launch a business assistance scheme for the music and events industry quite soon and is determining how we can assist the larger events companies in that regard. I hope we will have something ready for next week or the week after.

See this speech in context