MCD committee to examine Streisand chaos

Concert promoters MCD have announced the establishment of a specialist committee to examine the problems at last Saturday night…

Concert promoters MCD have announced the establishment of a specialist committee to examine the problems at last Saturday night's Barbra Streisand concert at Castletown House, Co Kildare.

The committee, to be chaired by former Garda commissioner Pat Byrne, is intended to deal with the issues "effectively and efficiently".

Other committee members include health and safety officer Michael Slattery, Julian Davis, who was communications consultant on the Special Olympics World Games, and senior MCD personnel Denis Desmond and Justin Green.

Attempts by The Irish Times yesterday to contact an MCD spokesman about the committee were unsuccessful.

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Many fans who had paid up to €550 for tickets were outraged because of long delays in getting into the concert and problems with finding their seats. They have claimed there was only one entrance to the car park for 17,000 people attending, most of whom had travelled by car.

The concert was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime experience but some fans missed part of Streisand's first Irish performance as they were stalled in traffic for 45 minutes.

Many concert goers said there were very few stewards on hand to direct the many latecomers to the appropriate seats. Some said their seats did not appear to exist and others found their places already occupied when they arrived to claim them. Streisand delayed coming on stage for 45 minutes due to the hold-ups.

MCD issued an apology on Sunday morning which cited traffic problems, weather conditions and "opportunistic fans" taking seats which had not been assigned to them as the causes of the problems.

They invited people affected to write to MCD managing director Denis Desmond about issues arising from the concert.

Some 127 complaints had been received by MCD up to yesterday and 95 per cent of all complaints had been acknowledged, the company said. MCD said all further complaints would "be dealt with promptly".

The National Consumer Agency (NCA) has also received a number of complaints about the concert and intends to keep track of the work carried out by the new committee.

Ann Fitzgerald of the consumer agency said: "We had a very constructive meeting with MCD today. We welcome their decision to set up a committee to look into the matter.

"MCD have agreed to give the NCA a weekly update on progress by the committee and to stay in close contact with us on the issue. We would ask all consumers with complaints to contact MCD directly and to copy the NCA on all communications," Ms Fitzgerald added.

The committee will hold its first meeting later this week and it should have completed its work by September.

Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll

Steven Carroll is an Assistant News Editor with The Irish Times