Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan has been back before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications this afternoon, being further questioned about the circumstances behind the decision to licence only three of the five Garth Brooks shows planned for Croke Park. The shows were all subsequently cancelled as a result of the council’s decision, disappointing 400,000 Garth Brooks fans.
In relation to the number of objections to the five Garth Brooks shows that have turned out to be bogus, Mr. Keegan said: “It was, I stress, the council who initiated the contact with the Gardai to have the matter of suspect submissions investigated.”
While the council initially felt eleven objections to be suspect, Mr. Keegan now believes, from a sample of 200 submissions that 36% were fraudulent.
“It would be totally unreasonable on that basis to ignore all the submissions made by the public,” he argued. “In any event we have no right to do so. It would in fact be a breach of the statutory process. Even if no submissions were received, we would be required to consider this matter. Although important, the submissions and observations made by the public are only one of the matters that must be considered by the City Council.”
He further explained the decision that had been taken.
“The Council took the view that there was a failure on the part of the GAA/Aiken Promotions to address the legitimate concerns of residents. This failure was evidenced by the number of public meetings of residents where strong opposition was expressed to the proposal for the concerts.”
However, in a development which may surprise the committee, he agreed that he had said to the Croke Park Stadium Manager Peter McKenna that, “I would have been supportive at that stage of five concerts…
“However,” he insisted, "I gave absolutely no assurance - nor could I have given any assurance at that stage - that all five concerts would be licensed because no event licence application had been submitted in respect of the concerts. Mr. McKenna was fully aware of the event licensing process and must have known that any decision on the licence application would have to follow the statutory process and be informed by that process including any submissions from members of the public etc., which of course had not been received at that point.
“It would not have been appropriate for an officer of the City Council to indicate the likely outcome of an event licensing process or to alert Croke Park to the need for contingency plans until that process had been completed. To do so would have exposed the council to the very real possibility of legal action. The City Council did indicate consistently throughout the process that concerns regarding the impact of the proposed five consecutive concerts on local residents.
“I’m satisfied that the City Council in its assessment of the Garth Brooks concerts event licence application upheld the integrity of the laws under which it must operate. While there has been a massive and, to some degree, understandable emotive narrative around aspects of this concert, had the City Council not operated within the legal framework it would have been subject to legal challenge for its failure to do so.”
He went on to discuss the issue of the licensing of events in general.
“Are the event licensing laws fit for purpose? All I can say is I know the Minister has indicated his intention to review the legal framework. The City Council welcomes this and will contribute fully to any review.
“Nothing that has occurred since the decision was made has changed my opinion that the decision was appropriate, balanced and reasonable.”
Responding to a question from Chairman of the Committee, John O’Mahony, Mr. Keegan said that, had there been an uncontested judicial review, “It would be completely contrary to everything I’ve said to this committee and every belief I have in relation to that process. I would lose all credibility... I would have resigned.”