The issue of safety at sporting events is one which has only rarely impinged on the national consciousness. For the most part, we have been able to enjoy sporting endeavour without being too fussy about safety standards. Fortunately, we have never experienced anything like the Hillsborough or Heysel Stadium disasters or the Bradford City fire in which so many people died.
To some extent, this age of innocence in Irish sporting life ended last February when visiting English soccer fans rioted and forced the first ever abandonment of an international football fixture. The publication of the code of practice for safety at sports grounds, and a further report on safety at pop concerts by the Minister for Sport, Mr Allen, yesterday is a welcome response to these events and underlines the dangers of complacency in relation to safety issues.
The report does not suggest that we are stumbling inevitably towards a Hillsborough type disaster in this State and it provides a useful service by providing a comprehensive code of practice for sporting organisations, the local authorities, the Garda and others. Some of the lessons of the Lansdowne Road riot, which raised the most serious questions about Garda planning and procedures at public events, have been absorbed the code of practice underlines the thrust of the Hamilton Report on the Lansdowne Road riot by placing a strong emphasis on the need for stringent advance planning by the Garda.
In other respects, the report seeks to ensure that the code of practice now routinely observed at major sporting events abroad will be introduced here. It sets out detailed procedures in such areas as management and maintenance of stadiums, emergency evacuation and communications procedures.
Mr Allen underlined yesterday that the code of practice is voluntary and self regulatory. The plan at this stage, apparently, is to work with the sporting organisations to ensure that safety standards are upgraded. Certainly, the 190 page code is much more polite in tone than the Taylor Report on the Hillsborough disaster, which gave Premier League football clubs no option but to build all seater stadiums and to incorporate the highest safety features. By contrast, the Department of Education's code states that "there is no reason to believe that terraces cannot remain a perfectly safe area for viewing major sporting events". And it underlines that the code will principally apply to grounds with a capacity of over 20,000.
The code of practice also gives the sporting organisations a great deal of latitude even when there are deficiencies in safety standards which are not a serious risk to life. Depending on the circumstances of the particular case, the sporting organisation has until January 2003 to correct matters.
Mr Allen's ambition of upgrading standards in a spirit of co operation with the sporting organisations is admirable but it may be that a tougher approach is needed. It is indeed the case, as the report points out, that an immediate insistence on the highest safety standards would have very serious financial implications for sporting organisations. But the Government might consider following the British example and providing some public funds to the sporting organisations to help cushion the blow. At present, only a derisory £6 million is available to upgrade sports facilities. But safety should not be compromised in order to cut costs.
The same principle must apply at pop concerts and outdoor musical events. The danger of an emergency when tens of thousands of excited young people gather at major rock concerts is very real. The hope must be that the code published yesterday will heighten awareness about the need for adequate emergency procedures and crowd control.