Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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670. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government for an update on the review of the event licensing framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35948/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Event Licensing Review Group conducted its deliberations on the event licensing legislative regime over the period October 2014 to March 2015 and submitted recommendations in April 2015. Having considered these recommendations, I signed new amending event licensing regulations on 19 June 2015. These regulations came into effect on 1 October 2015.

The principal new provisions are:

- event licence applications will not be accepted by a local authority unless a pre-application consultation meeting, with the relevant local authority and principal response agencies, has already taken place with the event promoter;

- a pre-application meeting (and therefore an application) will not be facilitated where the event promoter has already advertised or soldtickets for the proposed event;

- event licensing applications must be lodged with the relevant local authority at least 13 weeks inadvance of the proposed event;

- local authorities must make their decision on an event licence application no later than four weeks before the proposed event;

- where it is proposed to add performances to a schedule already announced, a further pre-application consultation meeting will be required to take place before the announcement of any additional dates.

The new regulations are intended to make the event licensing system more streamlined and fit for purpose, while also bringing greater order and certainty to the process for all parties involved.