Rental accommodation as far away as Tipperary and Wexford is being snapped up at vastly inflated prices and homes all over Leinster are being advertised on the internet as 'Ryder Cup houses', with owners offering a week's accommodation for up to 35,000.

Such is the number of homes being offered to golf tourists that the Revenue Commissioners has announced its intention to ensure that all earnings made through renting accommodation to tourists is declared. Revenue has also said that it expects people to cash in on the event by offering fake merchandise and taxi services.

However, taxis will be no good to many of the thousands of people who will descend on Kildare for the Ryder Cup. On websites established to find accommodation for tourists, houses in Dublin, Wicklow, Tipperary and other surrounding counties are all being advertised for potential visitors at an average cost of 16,500 for one week.

With hotels in the area long since booked out, those desperate to witness September's Ryder Cup are forking out up to 5,000 a night to stay in a semi-detatched house which could be up to 100 miles from the actual competition.

The K Club, which will host the golf, is not taking any private guests for the tournament and is completely booked out with players and their entourages. Other hotels in the area are also sold out for the duration of the competition, leaving limited options for visitors.

According to Brian Higgins, who runs a Ryder Cup accommodation website, demand for houses in the area has led to prices spiralling.

"People who want to advertise their homes on our website set their own price, " he says.

"Demand is so high for accommodation that people realise they can get $20,000 [ 16,500] a week just for letting people stay in their house."

According to Higgins, most houses being offered are within a 30 minute drive from the K Club, although some are from neighbouring counties.

Some prices quoted online include a three-bedroomed house in Maynooth for 29,000, a five-bedroomed house in Celbridge for 25,000 and a four-bedroomed residence in Wicklow for 14,000. Prices for accommodation do not include tickets for the golf itself. Passes for the two-day event are currently trading hands for up to $3,000 on internet auction sites.

World Cup soccer The Ryder Cup is the latest example of our increasing willingness to pay over the odds to witness sporting events. This summer's World Cup in Germany will see match tickets exchange hands at vastly inflated prices. Even though Ireland will not compete in the event, tens of thousands of Irish fans are expected to travel to the world's premier sporting competition in June.

Fifa, the governing body of world football, is distributing tickets to supporters in five batches. However, each batch has so far been over-subscribed by several million.

Applications for the last round of distributions were 24 times higher than the number of tickets available, which ensures that many fans destined for Germany will arrive ticketless.

This plays directly into the hands of the ticket touts, who stand to make a fortune from the competition. The only other route open to ticketless fans is to purchase tickets on the internet, which will require forking out well over the odds.

The first batch of World Cup tickets were released in March of last year, with a second batch issued in May. Fifa has received orders for over six million tickets for the third batch, which are due to be released in early February, despite only having 250,000 tickets available.

Two more batches, in April and one in early July to cater specifically for the final match, look certain to be equally oversubscribed, with nearly 90% of applications received so far having come from Europe.

Six Nations rugby THowever, it is not only golfers and football enthusiasts who are paying massive sums of money for tickets. The rugby Six Nations is set to kick-off next month and fans are already being fleeced by online ticket touts. The fixture which always causes most excitement in Irish rugby circles is the game against England, which will take place the day after St Patrick's Day in Twickenham. Online auction sites are already selling tickets for the game with a face value of 50 for a staggering 640.

Ireland's home international games have also seen massive rises in online prices for tickets. Tickets for games in Lansdowne Road . . . the last set of rugby internationals to take place in the famous ground before its make-over . . . against Scotland, Italy and Wales are being sold online for between 360 and 400. The tickets have a face value of 50.

While last week's news of a deal between the country's three main sports bodies to allow the opening up of the 79,000-capacity Croke Park will go some way towards easing demand for tickets next year, rugby fans will soon find themselves back in a similar situation. The redeveloped Lansdowne Road is due to hold 50,000, only marginally more than the present capacity, but a larger proportion of this will be set aside for corporate tickets, meaning an even smaller capacity for ordinary fans.

If sport is the new opium of the people, it appears that our new drug is becoming more costly by the year.

www.Rydercup-accommodation. com