Fans boost touts' profits as TDs try to outlaw them

As ticket touts demanded the highest prices ever asked for an All-Ireland football final clash, opposition TDs were preparing the final drafts of a private members' Bill to outlaw ticket touting.

Touts outside Croke Park and in Dublin city centre yesterday were demanding up to £200 each for tickets with a face value of £12 on the Hill 16 and Canal End terraces, and Cusack and Hogan stand seats were going for £300 and £400.

Yesterday afternoon touts were everywhere in the city centre buying and selling tickets. The footpath in front of the Gresham Hotel on O'Connell Street took on the air of a fair day or mart as deals were discussed and tickets sold.

One man looking for any ticket at all was asked for £100 for a Canal End place which has a cover price of £12. When he said that "you'll have to come down a bit on that", the tout told him he'd be paying a lot more nearer Croke Park. Another wanted £150 for a ticket. When asked its face value he replied: "That doesn't matter. I paid £70 for it and it's for sale at £150."

One tout wanted £200 each for two Canal End tickets. When he got an indignant response that the ticket value was £12, he advised: "Look, love, you'd be better off watching it at home on the TV."

As thousands poured through the streets to Croke Park small deals were being done everywhere. One sale witnessed by up to 20 curious onlookers involved a delighted Kildare woman selling her £12 ticket for the Canal End to a Galway supporter for £30 when her husband managed to get her a Hill 16 one. The £18 profit was probably one of the smallest recorded on a day of astronomical prices, but no one could have been more delighted. "And we're gonna win!" she grinned.

Fine Gael TDs Mr Denis Naughten and Mr Alan Shatter are sponsoring the Prohibition of Ticket Touts Bill, expected to come before the Dail in the autumn session, which starts on Wednesday. The Bill includes a penalty of £1,000 or six months in prison for touting tickets above their face value.

Mr Naughten, a Fine Gael TD for Longford-Roscommon, said yesterday "people are getting very frustrated at the touts". Some people would give tickets away or swap them at the entrance rather than selling to touts, he added.

"Touting is not against the law at the moment, but the first step in stopping ticket touting is to make it illegal," he said yesterday as he sought a ticket for the match. Companies are being set up now to tout tickets in Dublin for concerts, GAA matches, English league soccer games, for a minimum of twice their face value.

"This year the touts are definitely making far bigger money than they have in the past because of the economic boom and because Galway or Kildare have not won an All-Ireland final in a long time," Mr Naughten said. "Everyone wants to be at the match - and they might not be back for a long time."

Young Fine Gael members are collecting signatures for a petition on the legislation and it is expected to go to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the week the legislation goes before the Oireachtas.

Ms Rosie Dolly was down at the barricades outside Croke Park shouting "anyone want to swap two Canal End tickets for Hill 16 ones?" Ms Dolly, from Naas, Co Kildare, and a friend paid £80 and £50 each for two tickets for the Canal End where the Galway supporters were "housed" and wanted to get Hill 16 Kildare end tickets.

She didn't hold out much hope for the anti-tout legislation. "That will never happen. Touts will always get tickets," she said. "There's people buying tickets for £200 and £300 and there's probably 30,000 people here looking for tickets. It's wrong that tickets are going for that price, but what can you do?" she said. "It's all the GAA's fault. They have 65,000 tickets and we have to come here and beg for them."

Ms Dolly, who owns a sports shop in Newbridge, said the real problem was that the competing counties got so few tickets - only 8,000 were allocated to Co Kildare. "They should just divide the tickets between the two counties who are playing and stop the madness of giving so many tickets to every club in the country. That doesn't work. And they should have the all-Ireland final on separate days - not have the minor and senior matches together."