Alan Kelly TD
Minister for the Environment.
C/o Niamh Redmond,
Planning Section
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government,
Custom House,
Dublin 1.
Dear Minister,
I welcome the opportunity to give a resident’s perspective on the operation of the event licensing
provisions of the Planning & Development Act 2000 (as amended) for the review that you are
undertaking.
Whilst I applaud your decision to give me this opportunity, it is crying shame is it that it has to be in
the current circumstances. If all Bills were subject to public scrutiny before enactment perhaps we
would learn something from that process? I realise that this is beyond the scope of your review,
but perhaps in that way, the number of invariable “loopholes” which appear after every enactment
could be reduced?
Many different aspects of the implementation of the new Public Event Licence [PEL] governance
provisions, and the way they have been (ab)used by the Planning Authorities, chiefly Dublin City
Council in my own personal experience, and as in this case, have led us to where we are today.
This has been compounded by the unilateral actions of others; such as promoters and landowners [i.e. event hosts, such as the GAA] who can only see the profit to be made at the expense
of local residents.
How any person, or body, could possibly think that the imposition of 5 consecutive nights of
massive crowds milling around their houses and local area all day long, and far into the night,
coupled with all the attendant anti-social problems which such crowds will always generate, on top
of ear-piercing music until an hour before midnight were going to go ahead without any opposition
is no longer a mystery to me – it is founded, and based on two basic human weaknesses – that is,
greed and a total disregard for others.
Historically, and currently, as usual in this country, we let things get completely out of hand before
we decide to address the problem.
The circumstances that have led us to where we today are well known. A lot of money was lost
(or not made) by the promoters, landowners [the GAA], hotels, pubs etc., (who hike up their prices
enormously for these events btw – threefold, in most cases, I believe) simply because the City
Manager had the civic sense of duty to listen to, and take on board, local residents’ objections
against being subjected to five consecutive nights of the above unbearable harassment.
As I say, these circumstances come about as a result of two human weaknesses - greed, and a
total disregard for the rule of law and complete contempt for my Constitutional right to live in peace
and quiet in my own home and not be put upon by my money-grabbing neighbour, the GAA.
First, you must identify the problems that you face – before you can fix them. Please allow me to
give you some advice on this.
Maybe this time, under your guardianship, we will get it right?
What are the problems and how did they come about?
The Chairman of my Residents’ Association, Clonliffe & Croke Park RA, has already written to you
covering the areas of illegal ticket sales and the absence of any appeal system regarding PELs, so
I shall not dwell too long on these particular topics hereunder.
Illegal sale of tickets.
During, and after, the Garth Brooks debacle last summer, we heard from all and sundry that we
should have a law forbidding the selling of tickets before a licence is held. Everyone was
clamouring for a law, or a change in the law, forbidding the selling of tickets prior to having a PEL.
As Minister, you will know that we do in fact have such a law – i.e. section 230 (3) of the P & D Act
2000, which is self evident and has, I believe, been drawn to your attention by some of my fellow
residents also.
Enough has been said and written on this topic, so I shall just limit myself to a few comments.
The problem here is clearly not one of lack of law, or appropriate law, but rather, a lack of
enforcement of our current law. I trust that you will be familiar with the text of s230 (3).
Suffice to say, and I have no doubt about this whatsoever, that if one were to present the wording
of this subsection to 12 year-old students on a Primary Cert’ English comprehension exam’ paper
and pose the question, “Is a person who sells tickets without a PEL guilty of an offence? – their
response would be 100% in the affirmative. But, when this matter is put before our professional
qualified planners, they come up with all sorts of dodges and gobbledygook as to why they think
the answer to the above question is “No” – as far as they are concerned.
“Subject to licence”
We have also heard a lot about the tickets being sold “subject to licence”. This caveat has
nothing whatsoever to do with the provisions of s230. It is a precaution taken by the promoter to
limit his/her liability in the event that an event does not go ahead – i.e. only the ticket price is
refundable in that scenario – any flight, hotel cost etc. are excluded under contract law.
That is why the tickets are sold “subject to licence”. It has nothing to do with the illegal sale of
tickets. If you succeed in nothing else with this review, you will have made some progress if you
can somehow bury this notion in the minds of the planners in your conclusions.
My favourite analogy in this regard, is a quip made by one of my fellow residents, when she heard
this waffle about the proviso printed on tickets etc., her response was…”If I was stopped at a
Garda checkpoint and pleaded that I did not have a driving licence, but that I had a sticker on my
car saying “subject to licence” and that I “intended” to get one (eventually?) I don’t really think I
would get away with it”.
That’s just about how ridiculous the situation is at present.
A glance at the attached letter from DCC will illustrate this kind of thinking for you. Every effort is
made to bend and twist the law into something it is not. What other conclusion can any
reasonable person come to, other than that there is an ulterior motive for this kind of rational – for
want of a better word!.
The real problem.
The real problem here is not either of the above…they just happen to have come to the surface
this year. The annual abuse of a valid planning decision by Bord Pleanala [BP] in 1993 to limit the
number of “special events” in Croke Park [CP] to three per annum is the problem. The sooner the
GAA & DDC – and everyone else involved realise that, the sooner the problem can be solved.
The record shows that for many years now I (personally) have been putting the matter of illegally
approved events in CP before the planners and, in particular, the immediate past manager of
Dublin City Council.
The GAA have, over the last few years, awoken a “sleeping giant” because of its greed and
disregard for local residents. No doubt, it will tell you [in its submission to this process?] that it
engages with residents on these matters. No doubt they will tell you all about “surveys” and
“newsletters” and “information-sharing days” etc. …and no doubt too, it will NOT tell you that we
were NOT told of the plans for these concerts until after the events were announced. Nothing
new in that – that is when we usually find out. It called a hurriedly-convened meeting of specially
selected “invited locals” on 12th Feb’ last . No doubt, it will not have told you about the DKM report
of 2008, on which DCC spent c€150,000 of public money, for its findings to be confined to the bin
by the GAA. I will attach a copy of this report hereto and perhaps you might care to consult me
when you have seen it? [See below re representation on your review committee]
The GAA would have found out about the strength of local opposition to their plans to imprison us
in our homes had the 5 concerts been granted a PEL…or if the 3 approved concerts had gone
ahead…
The long-term solution, I believe, is for the current law to be properly implemented. If all the
various major venues around the country were limited to 3 events pa EACH, it would lessen the
impact on all the local residents and would probably receive universal support from the public. It
would thus share the pot between all of them, and not allow the greedy to impose these
catastrophes on us every few years…?
I would suggest, and respectfully request, your close scrutiny of my attached document “The Real
Problem” - regarding the ongoing annual abuse of s240(2)(a) by both DCC & the GAA.
Further comment on this is not necessary.
Lack of Appeal.
Local residents have long called for an appeal to be included by way of an amendment of the Act
of 2000 - to no avail. Recently, rumours have abounded about a possible 1st party appeal to a
PEL refusal being allowed - without a corresponding 3rd party right of appeal to a grant of a PEL.
It has been suggested that you may actually consider recommending reverting back to the old
system of Ministerial review in PEL cases – as it was prior to the establishment of BP? I don’t
know if there is any truth to these rumours, but I sincerely hope not. I would imagine that a onesided appeal only would fail the constitutionality test anyway? …and I cannot imagine a modernday Minister even thinking about the latter…
Recent amendments to planning Regs.
I believe that the change from 16 to 10 weeks to the requirement for advance notice of events was
made by your predecessor on foot of lobbying from (a group of?) promoters. If so, it seems not to
have worked out too well, seeing as they ignore the provisions of the above two sections
anyway…
Representation on you review committee.
I am not aware of the full details here, other than what I see on your website. There appears to be
no provision for “lay” people [i.e. residents] or legal persons? I would strongly urge the inclusion
of both please.
Perhaps we could push the boat out a bit, and take a look at the English[UK?] model for cases
involving large stadia. Maybe some radical thinking like the use of the section 106 provisions for
local agreements might be a runner – as with the recent Arsenal FC case? Perhaps you would
consider compulsory consultation with residents in PEL cases?
Further submissions.
As you will have seen, I have had to cobble this document together in a very haphazard manner
because of lack of time.
I would appreciate an opportunity to elaborate on some of the issues involved and would
respectfully request that I be invited to submit a further, more structured submission that would be
better able to inform you about my last 35 years of dealing with Croke Park/GAA and concerts etc.
They keep telling us that they want a solution, but they still insist on doing their best to avoid any
possibility of that.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Branagan
145 Clonliffe Road
Dublin 3
01 837 2533