Proposed legislation would impose substantial fines for selling tickets above face value for sport and entertainment events.
People hoping to attend sold out concerts and sporting events are often exploited by ticket touts outside venues selling tickets at inflated prices.
Tickets for the upcoming Five Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road are changing hands for up to £600. While the price being charged by ticket touts may seem criminal what they are doing is not illegal.
Moves are afoot to clamp down on ticket touting. Fine Gael spokesperson on youth affairs Denis Naughten explains,
What we are doing is bringing in a law that will make it illegal.
Fine Gael has tabled a Private Members Bill to end the advertising or selling of any tickets above the face value. Anyone convicted of touting could face six months in jail or a £1,000 fine.
Founder of Ticketmaster in Ireland Tommy Higgins does not think ticket touting is a major problem in Ireland but,
If the legislators can put something in place to cure the ticket touts, I would support it.
A clampdown on ticket touts has already taken place in Britain and France.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 1 March 1999. The reporter is Anthony Murnane.
