I commend the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications on its prompt response to the regrettable cancellation of the Garth Brooks concerts and thank it for granting the GAA the opportunity to place important facts relating to this matter on the public record.
The first issue that needs to be addressed is the circumstances that led to two planned Garth Brooks concerts becoming five concerts. While a complex dynamic of fast-moving events ultimately came into play, how two concerts became five can be explained by one observation: the informed music industry opinion of the artist's appeal, based on entirely reasonable assumptions, was simply overwhelmed by what can only be called an extraordinary and utterly unpredictable social phenomenon. Let me explain. Garth Brooks in recent years had played only occasional concerts in the USA, had not toured abroad for many years, had not been in Ireland since 1997, and had not released newly recorded material since 2001. Two concerts, catering for 160,000 people, seemed perfectly adequate, particularly as the same artist had drawn a total of 140,000 fans on his last appearance in Ireland. These reasonable assumptions were, however, rendered redundant by the truly astonishing demand for tickets. This was simply a case where a public reaction utterly defied logic and conventional wisdom. Within two hours, three concerts had sold out and an incredible total of 240,000 tickets were sold. What had simply been a concert became a national event; what had simply been a night out became an unmissable national celebration. There may be something particularly and exuberantly Irish in the way people suddenly became aware that they were creating, and would be participating in, what would be the great Irish celebratory experience of the summer of 2014. An irresistible social force took over, and suddenly five concerts had sold out and 400,000 tickets had been sold.
When Aiken Promotions, aware of what was happening after three concerts had instantly sold out, approached Croke Park seeking two extra nights, we had concerns about the impact on the local community of a larger than usual number of concerts taking place on successive evenings. These concerns, however, were allayed somewhat by several factors. One, there was to be a two-month gap between the One Direction concerts and those of Garth Brooks. Two, the Brooks audience would be easily managed and very unlikely to be troublesome. Three, concert licences in Dublin have never been declined; moreover, Croke Park concerts are run to the absolute highest standards. Indeed, Dublin City Council told us that the One Direction concerts were run as close as it is possible to get to a textbook standard. Four, Croke Park has never run more than three concerts on consecutive nights since its redevelopment in 1993 and did not host any concerts in 2013, and this would be a one-off national event over five nights that would never be repeated. Finally, in agreeing to the request from Aiken Promotions for two extra concerts in Croke Park, the GAA was conscious of its own tradition of making the stadium available for important events of national significance, be it the Special Olympics, soccer and rugby internationals, the Eucharistic Congress or a possible Rugby World Cup in Ireland.
Of course the GAA was set to make extra money from the extra concerts. That is exactly the point: it was extra money, bonus revenue that we had not allowed for in our budgets and that we were not dependent upon. We were content with two concerts, while a third was already a bonus. In any case, concerts or no concerts, the GAA will drive on with its plans for 2014.
I would also like to clear up some confusion that exists in the public mind about the number of concerts permitted in Croke Park. Croke Park has planning permission for three concerts per annum. This is in-perpetuity permission. If we wish to hold additional events catering for more than 5,000 people, we must apply for a special events licence. The Garth Brooks concerts were such events. The mechanism of special events licensing is the most common approach employed in Dublin, and Croke Park's use of this mechanism is not unusual. For example, concerts in Marlay Park, the Phoenix Park and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, as well as the St. Patrick's Day Parade, etc., are all licensed. We have successfully applied for special events licences in the past and have never been refused by Dublin City Council. Legally, there is no limit to the number of special event licences we may apply for.
I would like to turn now to the issue of Croke Park's neighbours and to the GAA's relationship with these residents. In his mediator's report on the long-term management of concerts in Croke Park, Kieran Mulvey noted the lack of trust expressed by residents' representatives in Croke Park. On the one hand, I accept that we need to work harder to change that negative perception where it exists. On the other hand, there are two unpalatable facts that must be faced: first, not all of those who objected most vociferously to the concerts even live in the area adjacent to Croke Park, and, second, many of the objections lodged with Dublin City Council were fraudulent. In addition, it has to be recognised, and it is now clear, that the majority of residents in the area were not opposed to the staging of five concerts.
It is important, too, that everyone be aware of the very positive elements of the relationship we have developed with the Croke Park residents, notably through our community gain initiatives. The GAA spent €1.5 million to provide a community centre on Distillery Road, and we employ a full-time community and public relations officer to liaise with local residents. We established the Croke Park community fund in 2008, through which the GAA donates €100,000 every year to the community located within 1.5 km of Croke Park. Since 2008 we have allocated over €500,000 to local community initiatives, groups, charities, and individual streets and associations. This year alone, the GAA has funded 22 local groups, covering street committees, local sports and cultural groups, local charities and day-care centres. Under our youth community gain initiatives, the GAA subsidises the participation every year of children from the area in the Croke Park community GAA Cúl camps. This summer, over 200 local children participated in the camp. We also run a weekly computer coding class in Croke Park for children from the community; these are free of charge and are well attended every week. The GAA also distributes match tickets to local residents. Elsewhere, in a composting and recycling initiative, 15 tonnes of Croke Park compost was given free to local community gardens and homes in 2014. Finally, every Christmas the GAA organises and funds a Christmas party for senior citizens from the local community; the 2013 party was attended by 650 local people.
These facts, I hope, give an indication of how seriously the GAA takes its relationship with the local Croke Park community and how it strives to treat this community with respect and consideration. These same principles informed our engagement with this community over the Garth Brooks concerts. We were genuinely concerned about the impact on the local community of a larger-than-usual number of concerts taking place on successive evenings. The GAA, therefore, in conjunction with Aiken Promotions, undertook an extensive and vigorous consultation process with the local community so as to better understand, address and resolve local concerns relating to access, parking, cleaning and any possible anti-social behaviour arising from the concerts. This consultation process had four distinct stages: we held a local residents' meeting on 12 February; we held two meetings, on 18 February and 11 March, with local public representatives; in the first half of March, we sent out a survey questionnaire to 27,000 households living within 1.5 km of Croke Park; and at the end of March, we ran a community information sharing forum at which we communicated the results of this survey to local residents. At this meeting, we gave a draft events plan for the concerts to local residents, and management personnel from Croke Park and Aiken Promotions discussed this with residents. The feedback we received from residents through this process was recorded, reviewed and used where possible in the drafting of a hugely comprehensive event-management plan that was ultimately submitted to Dublin City Council as part of the licence application.
It is fair to say that Croke Park has a reputation for running well-organised and safe events.
It has developed a close working relationship with Dublin City Council in the successful staging of these events. A spirit of honest exchange and mutual trust has characterised the relationship between Croke Park and senior Dublin City Council officials and this approach has ensured all concerns are adequately dealt with in finalised event management plans for major events.
The planning for the Garth Brooks concerts followed the protocols established by previous events held in Croke Park. As part of this process, it is customary to hold formal and informal discussions with statutory agencies and Dublin City Council to review event-specific issues and agree a joint strategy for addressing these issues before committing to an event management plan. During our discussions with Dublin City Council the impact of five shows on local residents was always raised. During both informal and formal discussions the council stressed heavily the need for what it called additionality in our licence application, in other words, the need to do things that had not been done before in the staging of such events, for example, in the quality and extent of the arrangements. I stress the vital point that at no stage was there ever even a hint that a licence would not be granted for all five concerts. Prior to the submission of the draft event management plan for the concerts and the application for an event licence, the Croke Park stadium director, Mr. Peter McKenna, received a telephone call from Mr. Owen Keegan, chief executive of Dublin City Council, who was returning a call made by Mr. McKenna to Mr. Keegan. In their telephone conversation Mr. Keegan advised Mr. McKenna that Dublin City Council would support a licence application for all five concerts. Mr. Keegan asked Mr. McKenna to make the decision making process as easy as possible for Dublin City Council. Mr. McKenna assured Mr. Keegan that he and his team would work closely with Mr. Keegan's colleague, Mr. John Downey, in making a complete and comprehensive submission. Mr. McKenna also assured Mr. Keegan that he would ensure the One Direction concerts would be held in an exemplary manner. All further liaison with Dublin City Council after that conversation was with Mr. Downey.
As preparations for the Garth Brooks concerts continued, the One Direction concerts held in Croke Park on 23, 24 and 25 May were used to trial additional event management measures, as follows. A residents-based community team was deployed to monitor the cordon area with the primary function of assisting fellow residents. Additional gardaí were deployed to support Dublin street parking services in order to enforce legal parking. A co-ordinated public transport and parking information campaign was run in conjunction with Dublin City Council and An Garda Síochána. A 24 hour community freefone hotline was staffed by members of the community team during the concert period. An additional community litter team was deployed to support the Dublin City Council cleaning operation. These new measures were hugely successful and only three complaints were lodged with Dublin City Council over the three nights of the concerts, a low figure that is unprecedented in the running of major events running in the city. Some 240,000 people attended over three nights.
After the One Direction concerts, Croke Park and Aiken Promotions met Dublin City Council on 3 June to address some concerns raised about the originally submitted works schedule. An amended works schedule was presented and accepted, detailing a five event schedule. To stress how clear was the understanding that a licence for all five concerts would be granted, Dublin City Council officials, in informal discussions prior to a decision on the licence application being announced, expressed the hope the Mulvey report would be released before a decision on the licence was made public in order that it would be clear to residents that there was a longer term plan in place for the management of concerts in Croke Park.
I acknowledge that Croke Park values its positive working relationship with Dublin City Council. The joint approach to additional measures was clearly visible in the success of the One Direction concerts and the collaboration between Croke Park and Dublin City Council in general event planning leads to important attention to detail and a joint commitment to getting things right. However, I am obliged to emphasise that all of our contact with Dublin City Council on the Garth Brooks concerts led us to believe we would be granted a licence for all five concerts. At no stage was Croke Park alerted to the need to prepare contingency plans for a smaller number of concerts. It would have been crucial for Croke Park to have been alerted to prepare such contingency plans. Members can imagine, for example, the huge scale of the security operation necessary to deal with even a small percentage of the 160,000 fans who might attempt to gain access to shows for which they had no ticket. Such contingency plans would have required a multi-agency approach.
I would like to touch on a small number of other issues relating to the ultimate refusal to grant a licence for the five concerts. On Thursday, 3 July, I heard about the decision to grant a licence for only three concerts from a friend of mine shortly before I was contacted by Mr. Owen Keegan at 9.15 a.m. I told him of my shock at the decision and called him back about an hour later to ask him not to sign off on the decision to grant a licence for only three concerts to give us time to consider the ramifications of the decision. He said the decision had already been made and signed off on and could not be appealed. Despite our excellent record in running concerts at Croke Park, despite Dublin City Council's praise for our running of the One Direction concerts, despite the quality of the submission and the total commitment to formulating the licence application according to the letter of the law, and despite a long-standing relationship with Dublin City Council, apparently, we did not even deserve the courtesy of being allowed to consider and, possibly, address the grounds for the refusal to grant a licence for five concerts.
I would like to address some of the points made by Mr. Owen Keegan, chief executive of Dublin City Council, in his written submission yesterday to the committee. Dublin City Council refused the application for five concerts for three reasons. The first reason offered is that five concerts over five evenings would be "unprecedented for Croke Park". We agree that it would be unprecedented, but how does the notion of something being "unprecedented" automatically disqualify it? Should the licence application not have been considered on its own merits, regardless of whether something had happened in the past? The lack of a precedent seems to be an excessively conservative and unprogressive reason to invoke. One wonders how transformation and improvement in society would ever occur if we allowed our decisions to be dictated only by the way we did things in the past. In any case, establishing a precedent does not tie one's hands for the future. Saying "Yes" today does not mean that we cannot say "No" tomorrow. One simply decides on the merits of things as they occur, as we believe should have been the case in this instance.
The second reason offered for the refusal of the licence for five concerts was that the Garth Brooks and One Direction concerts together would, for Dublin City Council, have represented "an over-intensification of use" of Croke Park. This is an argument that is employed rather selectively. We did not hear anything about over-intensification of the use of Croke Park during the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road when Croke Park was needed to host international soccer and rugby internationals which were, of course, in addition to Croke Park's own schedule of match days and concerts. Should the IRFU's application to host either the 2023 or 2027 Rugby World Cup in Ireland be successful, Croke Park will be required for a total of seven matches, again in addition to Croke Park's own schedule of match days, plus its quota of three concerts. Is there anyone here who seriously imagines that an argument about over-intensification of use of Croke Park will be allowed to interfere with these seven rugby World Cup matches in Croke Park? I think there is not.
The final reason offered for the refusal of the licence for five concerts was that it would have led to "an unacceptable level of disruption" for local residents and some businesses. I have already addressed in detail Croke Park's excellent record in the staging of concerts, Dublin City Council's recognition of the textbook running of the One Direction concerts, the extra measures put in place - trialled at the One Direction concerts - to manage the Garth Brooks concerts and our complete willingness to comply with Dublin City Council's request for additionality in the management of the event.
It would appear, however, that Dublin City Council was swayed by the submissions it received that objected to the holding of five concerts. Here we arrive at the most disturbing aspect of the entire business because Mr. Keegan acknowledged that: "Dublin City Council was contacted by a number of individuals stating that they had not made submissions/observations on this licence application." Clearly, these fraudulent submissions objected to the five concert application. Mr. Keegan further stated that: "11 such instances came to the attention of the Council. The matter was referred to An Garda Síochána for their attention on 12 June 2014." Eleven fraudulent submissions is bad enough. How do we know that this was the full extent of the fraudulent submissions? Mr. Keegan implied that Dublin City Council only became aware of such fraud when people whose names had been falsely used contacted them. It is not unreasonable to assume there may have been many more fraudulent submissions, given what was quite clearly an orchestrated campaign to prevent a licence for five concerts, through fair means or foul.
Given that Dublin City Council was clearly influenced by the vociferous campaign waged by a small minority to block the concerts, a campaign waged heavily in national media and of which Dublin City Council was clearly aware, as its submission yesterday acknowledged, and given that there was incontrovertible evidence of fraudulent submissions objecting to the granting of five licences, surely Dublin City Council should have been alerted to the fact that its own licensing process was being seriously manipulated and distorted by people opposed to the five concerts. Alerted to this fraud a full three weeks before reaching the decision to grant a licence for three concerts only, Dublin City Council should have taken the time to cast a more rigorously sceptical eye on the nature and extent of the opposition to the five concerts and perhaps reached a different decision. It is in this light that, in a written submission of 4,000 words, Dublin City Council's offering of a mere 34 words on the impact of the manipulation of its licensing process, is surprising to say the least. Even more disconcerting is the verdict reached by Dublin City Council in the 34 words: "Accordingly, while it is disturbing that so many submissions may now be called into question, it does not, in the opinion of the City Council, interfere with the integrity of the decision arrived at." If Dublin City Council itself admits that "so many submissions may now be called in to question", how can it conclude that this does not interfere with the integrity of its decision? Surely that is exactly what the fraudulent submissions did to the integrity of its decision. What more conclusive and damning proof could there be that the integrity of Dublin City Council's decision had been undermined by the submissions process being manipulated and distorted in the unique goal of persuading Dublin City Council not to grant a licence for five concerts?
My final comment in response to Dublin City Council's written submission relates to the matter of the major economic loss to the country due to the decision not to grant a licence for five concerts. Again, Dublin City Council offered only a few very brief sentences in its submission on this question and seemed to imply that potential economic benefits are simply not a consideration in its decision-making where concert licence applications are concerned. However, Dublin City Council said that potential benefits are "not central" in its decision-making. That does not seem to say that economic benefits are not considered at all, only that Dublin City Council does not seem to consider them very important when considering licence applications. If only it had done so on this occasion.
I will conclude with these comments. I reiterate that the GAA fully accepts the recommendations made by the mediator, Kieran Mulvey, on the future staging of concerts in Croke Park. We cannot say fairer than that. The GAA wants a strong, mutually respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with Croke Park residents, a relationship that has been made difficult in the past as there has not been one coherent group representing residents with which we could engage.
Finally, the bigger issues raised by this affair need to be seriously addressed. Listeners to these remarks will gather that Croke Park feels let down by the process. More than that, the country has been let down. I do not think it unreasonable to claim that the people of Ireland, and those abroad who have followed this affair, find the decision to refuse a licence for five concerts incomprehensible. They are right. It is incomprehensible.
Let us consider the reality of what we all knew when the licence application for five concerts was submitted. It meant 400,000 people - 330,000 of our citizens and 70,000 tourists from abroad - had paid a substantial sum of money to buy tickets for the concerts, flights and book hotels. These people were set to present the country with the undreamed-of gift of a massive economic uplift. We all knew this but what did we do? We said "No" and in so doing we turned our backs on an enormous financial windfall, and denied a vast number of people the pleasure of enjoying a great social and cultural occasion. Moreover, we made a decision that can be considered undemocratic because the wishes of a truly enormous number of people were ignored.
Dublin City Council tells us that the decision reached was "appropriate, balanced and reasonable". Was that the case for the 400,000 people who had bought tickets and looked forward to the concerts? We had the opportunity to grant ourselves a joyful celebration and to enjoy a unique national, social and cultural experience that we would have fondly remembered for years. We have now lost all of this and, as is the way of these things, we only realise the enormity of what we lost when it is too late to do anything about it. How could we have so lost sight of the bigger picture? How could we have lost sight of the people's decision to have a national celebration and their willingness to pour money into the economy? How could we have become so side-tracked as to commit such a self-inflicted wound on the country?
