Licensing laws covering events such as the Garth Brooks concerts should be sorted out, Fine Gael Senator Eamonn Coghlan said. Issues arising in the neighbourhood of such events must also be resolved. "Let us not have an Irish solution to an Irish problem,'' he added.

Mr Coghlan said that when the concerts were announced , there was a spectacular launch in Croke Park and sales went through the roof. Contracts were drawn up and employment generated. "However, all of this was subject to a licence from Dublin City Council, '' he added. "Where in God's name would one get this ?''

Aideen Hayden (Lab) said the affair was like the Cabinet reshuffle – it went on and on. “I realise there is a considerable number of disappointed people, and a huge cost to the Irish economy, but it is going from the sublime to the ridiculous when we get to the point of asking the president of the United States to intervene in five Garth Brooks concerts in Ireland.”

Paul Coghlan (FG) said 400,000 people were allowed to buy tickets for functions that had not been licensed, while it was wrong that one person, manager or chief executive, should have such power without the right to appeal.