The RDS could not stage two U2 concerts next month if the IRFU fails to overturn yesterday's High Court order restraining it from staging them at Lansdowne Road. Mr Shane Cleary, RDS chief executive, said last night it would be "very interested" in staging the concerts, but under regulations it could stage only one this year. The RDS may stage three such concerts a year, and already in 1997 Radiohead and Michael Jackson have been there.
Mr Cleary said the High Court decision could have "very serious" implications for open-air venues, particularly those used for sporting events. It was "a very strange situation to be in", particularly for Dublin, and he could think of no other European capital where it had happened.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said last night it would not be appropriate for the Minister to comment at this stage, pending the appeal outcome. But he added that all matters relating to planning and development were covered by a code of law under which decisions to grant or refuse permission are made by the relevant local planning authority. Such decisions can be appealed to An Bord Pleanala. The planning authority also decides whether a particular development falls within the scope of the Planning Acts.
In no circumstances is the Minister empowered to intervene or become involved with any application or appeal, he said.
A spokeswoman for the planning authority, Dublin Corporation, declined to comment on the case, saying it was not directly involved in yesterday's hearing.
The National Youth Council of Ireland said yesterday's High Court decision had serious implications for youth and music culture in Ireland. "The way things have now gone in Ireland, it has become almost impossible to organise a rock concert," said Ms Jillian Hasset, the council's president.
In a statement, the Young Fine Gael chairman, Mr Arthur Lynch, said they were "both disgusted and disappointed" that the concerts had been halted. The situation was "totally unacceptable", he said, and he called for a `concerts body' to be set up to oversee applications.
Fine Gael's acting spokesman on the Environment, Mr Richard Bruton, called on the Minister, Mr Dempsey, yesterday to clarify the planning laws.
In the time it took to get this far in a bureaucratic mess, he said, U2 had moved across a continent playing dozens of concerts. It must be ensured, he said, that Ireland did not become a no-go area for major international acts. It would be tragic, he felt, if Ireland's young people were consistently deprived of the right to see "our own hugely successful stars performing in their own country".
