Eamonn Coghlan (Independent)

It would be remiss of me not to talk about the subject that has been talked about the most, the incidents in the Phoenix Park on Friday night last. I was saddened when I heard about them on Saturday morning. Perhaps we do not need an inquiry to find out what happened but a complete ban on the holding of concerts in the Phoenix Park. As someone who grew up and, perhaps, knows every blade of grass and nook and cranny in the Phoenix Park and every street adjacent to it, the OPW has done a phenomenal job in recent years in attracting visitors to it. Irrespective of what inquiry is done by the Garda, security company, concert promoters or Office of Public Works, nothing will change what was done in the Phoenix Park by a few young people. Thousands of people use the park daily. It is home to Dublin Zoo and hosted the Bloom festival over the June bank holiday weekend. Wonderful cycling, motor, athletics and cricket events, to name but a few, are held regularly in the Phoenix Park, but one does not hear anything about the benefits it provides for the good citizens of the country. Why has the Phoenix Park been brought into disrepute? The reason is that concerts, whether held here or anywhere else in the world, attract drugs and alcohol. I drove through the Phoenix Park on Thursday last at approximately 5 p.m., which was several hours before a concert was due to commence, and I was appalled to see people carrying crates of beer and consuming drugs in full view. The issue is not the security at concerts, as the promoter, Garda and Office of Public Works will agree, but the fact that the grounds of the Phoenix Park are too large to secure. I ask that the Minister of State with responsibility for the park, Deputy Brian Hayes, ban concerts in the park.