Touts: the government looks on while the scandal continues

The Government parties have resoundingly failed to come up with an effective policy for dealing with the problem of ticket touting. Asked by hotpress to outline their proposals for dealing with the issue, Fianna Fail declined to offer a response, whilst in a curiously worded statement, which focused exclusively on sport and ignored music altogether, their junior partners, the Progressive Democrats, advocated the continued self-regulation of the three main national sporting bodies, the IRFU, the GAA and the FAI.

The opposition parties, for their part, uniformly supported the position adopted by MCD and Ticketmaster in a recent edition of hotpress, which saw both organisations call for the introduction of legislation to deal with the issue of touting.
Leading the way is Fine Gael Arts, Sports and Tourism spokesman Jimmy Deenihan, who has updated the party’s Ticket Tout Bill, which was first introduced in 2005, only to be voted down by the government parties.
In the explanatory memorandum which introduces the updated Bill, it is stated that, “The purpose of the Bill is to render it a criminal offence to advertise for sale, offer for sale or to sell a ticket for a major musical, sporting or theatrical event at a price in excess of the price designated on the ticket.” Fine Gael says it plans to introduce the Bill if it enters government following the forthcoming general election.
Fine Gael’s prospective coalition partners in Labour have also called for measures to combat ticket touting. Kathleen Lynch TD stated that “the Government must introduce legislation to make it an offence to offer for sale a ticket for an event above its face value. This measure should not just be directed against street touts, but should also aim to stop the corporate black market sector. There should also be a clampdown on tickets sold over the internet.”
Meanwhile, the Green Party, in the shape of Mark Deary – owner of the Spirit Store Venue in Dundalk, where he is a town councillor – and Sinn Fein have also joined the growing chorus of voices calling on the Government to use legislation to tackle the touting problem.
In the face of such an overwhelming consensus, the confusion and lack of urgency in the Government’s response is all the more remarkable. Leaving aside Fianna Fail’s failure to address the subject in any way whatsoever, the PDs’ satisfaction with the status quo in relation to sporting events (despite a ticket for the recent Ireland v England rugby international being offered on eBay for €2,000+), and decision to ignore the area of live music completely in its reply to hotpress’ queries, will come as a worrying surprise to most punters.
The party’s statement begins by saying, “The Government consulted the three main national governing bodies of sport, the GAA, IRFU and FAI on ticket touting in 2005… These consultations revealed a strong commitment on the part of the governing bodies to the elimination of ticket touting in respect of the sporting events under their control.
“They have systems in place to deal with ticket touting which enables them to trace any touted ticket to the person to whom it was issued,” the statement continues, “and to take any action considered appropriate. In addition a number of organisations have sophisticated systems in place aimed at eliminating ticket forgery, which can be experienced at major sporting events, and which prevent forged ticket holders from gaining entry to events.”
The statement concludes, “Legal advice obtained by the Government in 2001 indicated that responsibility for arrangements to ensure the availability of tickets on a fair basis, and the enforcing of such arrangements, is primarily a matter for the event organisers themselves. In the light of the policies of the major sporting organisations in combating ticket touting, we are not convinced that the enactment of legislation is required at this time.”
Unfortunately, whether in the areas of music or sport, ticket agencies, promoters and fans’ hands are tied in fighting the touts unless legislation is introduced – which seems extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.