Legislation may not be required to deal with the black market sale of tickets for major sporting and entertainment events, Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue said.
"Legal advice obtained by the department in 2001 indicated that responsibility for arrangements to ensure that the availability of tickets on a fair basis, and the enforcing of such arrangements, was primarily a matter for the event organisers themselves.
"In the light of the policies of the major sporting organisations in combating ticket touting, I am convinced that the enactment of legislation may not be required at this time," he added.
Fine Gael spokesman Jimmy Deenihan noted that he had introduced a Private Members Bill to deal with ticket touts, which had been supported by the IRFU, the FAI, the GAA and Ticketmaster.
He urged the Minister to give a commitment to accept the Bill if it was introduced in the House.
He said he had seen an individual pay €2,000 for two tickets for the recent All-Ireland final.
Mr Deenihan said that as far as he could see, Ireland was the only country without legislation dealing with the matter.
Mr O'Donoghue said things had moved on from the days of the old cardboard ticket and it was now easier with modern technology to trace the movement of tickets. He understood that the Attorney General had expressed doubts about the Bill's constitutionality.
