Ticket touting: Legislation Pending?

“I’d have no problem with that,” the Arts, Sport & Tourism spokesman tells Hot Press, “although there needs to be some legislative basis for the naming and shaming.”
Deenihan’s Private Members’ Bill is an updated version of proposals his fellow Fine Gael-ers Alan Shatter and Denis Naughton made as far back as 1998.
“The then minister, Jim McDaid, accepted the principle of the bill at second stage and promised to move it to committee stage, but he never did on the advice of the Attorney General, who at the time was Michael McDowell. Despite similar legislation being in place in other EU countries, his judgment was that it would be anti-competitive. I don’t believe that to be the case.”
As a result of recent developments – “and your magazine’s stand on the issue”, he told hotpress – Deenihan is promising to step up his efforts to push ‘The New Prohibition of Ticket Touts Bill’ through during this Dáil term.
The problem isn’t confined to music, with the Irish Rugby Football Union last week expelling a club member who attempted to sell two tickets for the Ireland v France game at Croke Park on eBay for €1,000. Needaticket.net are offering tickets for the same fixture for between €220 (Terrace) and €700 (Premium).
“There’s no major sporting event that you can’t get a ticket for,” Deenihan concludes. “Tickets for the Munster and Leicester game in Thomond Park (last weekend) were changing hands for €1,000 each, which is a nonsense. The Government haven’t at any point taken this issue seriously – but maybe they will now with an election coming up.”