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Sport for Business reveals below that tickets to attend next year’s Winter Olympics in Korea are freely available through at least one Authorised Ticket Reseller though an even hotter ticket may well be to tomorrow morning’s meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport.

One of those who might have been a star performer in the games at the latter will not be appearing though.  As expected, solicitors representing former Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey have written to the Committee to decline an invitation to adress their investigation of the Moran Report tomorrow morning.

The grounds given are understood to be the prejudice that anything he might say would have on ongoing criminal cases in Brazil where Mr Hickey is on charge but was released to travel back to Ireland awaiting the next stage of proceedings.

The committee will meet tomorrow morning and it is likely that those before it will include Minister Shane Ross, the new OCI President Sarah Keane and representatives from Sport Ireland.

The long term contractual arrangements between the OCI and British ticketing company THG are likely to be a main area of the discussion.

It was confirmed yesterday by the OCI that these contracts were agreed by Mr Hickey but that they only emerged in recent weeks after correspondence with THG and that the Executive Committee had been unaware of their full content, and the obligations they cover as well as the value, until that time.

A meeting was held between Mr Hickey and Ms Keane in Dublin on April 4th this year and it is likely that the Committee will seek clarity on what was discussed between the two at that time.

It is unlikely that Mr Hickey would be compelled to appear, given that he is now a private citizen awaiting trial for related matter in an overseas jurisdiction but the possibility is believed to be being explored.

The OCI has already been notified by the Local Organising Committee in Pyeongchang, host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, that THG will not be accepted as Ireland’s Authorised Ticket Reseller and an exploration of alternatives is now believed to be underway.

The distance, Pyeongchang is located 180KM from Seoul; and political questions, it is located only 80 KM from the border with North Korea, may mean there is a greater ease of ticketing for those who may wish to accompany Ireland’s small team next February.

CoSport, the Authorised Ticket Reseller used by Paralympics Ireland in Rio last year currently has tickets on sale priced at a little over €150 for a day at the Alpine Skiing.

THG is not offering any similar packages to the Winter Games at present though the site still does headline the fact that it was the ATR for the Irish, Greek and Maltese Olympic Committees at the London 2012 Olympic Games and for Ireland at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

The Oireactas Committee is chaired by Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd and also consists of Mick Barry (AAA-PBP), Peter Fitzpatrick (Fine Gael), Imelda Munster (Sinn Féin), Catherine Murphy (SD/GPTG), Kevin O’Keeffe (Fianna Fáil), Robert Troy (Fianna Fáil), Frank Feighan (Fine Gael), Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent), John O’Mahony (Fine Gael) and Ned O’Sullivan (Fianna Fáil).

Sport for Business will bring you the news from Committee Room Three within Leinster House tomorrow.