Refusal of Garth Brooks licences surprised GAA and promoters – Bannon

Fine Gael Longford Westmeath TD, James Bannon has, today (Wednesday), welcomed the announcement of a special Transport Committee meeting to discuss the cancellation of the Garth Brooks concerts.

“There are many questions to be answered around how the Garth Brooks concerts were dealt with, in particular how so many tickets were sold in expectance of licences that didn’t come through. There was clearly a breakdown in communication and we need to find out how this came about.

“The promoters claim they had no indication that licences would be refused and I have been informed, by sources within the GAA, that in advance of the tickets going on sale, they were informed that licencing should not be an issue.

  “In my opinion, this series of concerts would have been the biggest event for tourism since the Gathering last year and it would have given us an opportunity to once again showcase Ireland across the world.

“The decision to cancel all five concerts has massive economic implications, not just for Dublin, but for the rest of the country. These concerts were a reason for people to come to Ireland and while here they would have travelled to destinations outside of Dublin.

“I believe that cancelling the concerts has damaged the pride and spirit of the Irish people across the world and it has discommoded 400,000 people.”