The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, will not intervene to allow a second concert at Slane, despite an appeal from U2 lead singer Bono. A spokesman for Mr Dempsey said a second concert would be a planning matter and the Minister could not intervene.
Tickets for the August 25th concert at Slane sold out in 45 minutes on Saturday morning, leaving thousands of fans disappointed. Dejection turned to anger outside the HMV store on Grafton Street, Dublin, when hundreds of fans who had queued overnight were told there were no more tickets. One man was arrested.
Mr Justin Green, of concert promoters MCD, who faced criticism because of the way the 80,000 tickets were sold, said supply could never have matched demand. "It is in the hands of the Government now," he said. "The band would love to do a second concert."
Bono yesterday called on the Taoiseach and the Minister to step in. He added that he thought the tickets were distributed as fairly as possible.
Henry Lord Mount Charles, who hosts the Slane concerts, said yesterday a licensing procedure should replace the current system. As it stands, any one who wanted to stage an out door event had to apply for local authority planning permission.
A Department of Environment spokesman said legislation was not expected to be in place until the autumn. Lord Mount Charles said even if "all hurdles were jumped", he would still have to consult the people of Slane.