Former Irish rugby captain Keith Wood has described the price of tickets for matches at the Aviva stadium as "incredibly expensive".
Calling on the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) to come up with initiatives to attract younger patrons, the former Lions star proposed that tickets should be made available to schoolchildren when matches are not sold out.
"If there is a situation where matches are undersold they should be absolutely allocated out to kids so they get an opportunity to go in there because it's incredibly expensive at the moment as it is," he told Breakfast on Newstalk.
“I actually think you want to have children at a game without a shadow of a doubt” he added.
The Labour Party spokeswoman on tourism, culture and sport, Mary Upton TD, criticised the increased prices, saying a 21 per cent hike "is not justified in the depths of an economic recession when people across virtually all sections of society are experiencing a drop in incomes".
Apart from the basic increase in ticket prices, the decision to require people to buy a package of four tickets for the autumn series and two tickets for the Six Nations will discourage the casual fan and discriminate against those living in areas where there are no rugby clubs, she said.
On Wednesday, the IRFU revealed that fans wishing to buy a ticket for any one of the autumn internationals must also purchase the same ticket for the other three games at a cost of €340.
The IRFU defended the hike, saying the pricing of general entry tickets reflects the enhanced offering to patrons in the new Aviva Stadium.
"The IRFU is a not for profit organisation and is not in existence to produce a financial dividend to shareholders. Irish rugby is the only fully professional sport in Ireland and the only dividend that the IRFU produces is one of participation in sport," an IRFU statement read.