Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That would be appreciated because the 9.30 p.m. cut-off provided in the section would impact on radio bingos that a lot of charities use to raise money. We made the point strongly last week that charities need to be exempt.

The problem with legislation is that we have to deal with what is in front of us. I accept that the Minister of State spoke in good faith and it is clear from his response that he has listened to what we have been saying on this side of the House. Amendment No. 78 will kill off fundraising in a lot of areas. I will give a practical example of how this will work. It will mean that a local GAA club running a raffle with a prize of €10,000 or more can only advertise on social media to the people who like the club's page. What the proposed section 139 will allow, however, is for Paddy Power to come in and run a draw for, let us say, a trip to Orlando for a family of four with $2,000 spending money. That would fall under the €10,000 limit. Paddy Power can then say the money will go to the Irish Cancer Society and can advertise in an unlimited way to as many people as it wants to.

The other problem with section 139 is that the local club in the local community can only advertise to the people who have liked its Facebook but Paddy Power - I am not picking on Paddy Power but using the company as an example - with the firepower it has can run a draw tomorrow morning asking people to like and share its page - we all know how it works - and the winner will receive four tickets for the Taylor Swift concert alongside two nights' accommodation and €3,000. It is not a competition and it does not fall under the definition of a lottery but it increases Paddy Power's footprint of likes. Therefore, under this legislation, Paddy Power would be allowed to continue to target individuals.

The problem with gambling is that these companies are targeting the same individuals over and over again. The legislation, as drafted and as we are asked to pass it in the Dáil today, is flawed in that regard but I hear what the Minister of State is saying. What we tried to do in the amendment put forward by Deputy Daly was to exempt these charities and philanthropic bodies from that provision. Very wisely, we have a specific licence for that sector so it will be easier to exempt them. There will always be groups that will try to abuse that. The reason legislation had to be introduced a number of years ago was that various groups were running lotteries and pretending they were for charities. We then had to stipulate that so much of the funds raised would go to the charity sector. There will be a bit of a cat and mouse game here but we need to make sure we are not taking out a sledgehammer.

I will not go into much more detail about the other impacts these sections would have because I heard what the Minister of State said but they will crucify the activities of charities. Under this legislation, people will not be allowed to sell a raffle ticket for their local school door to door if the prize exceeds €2,000. They will not be able to sell a ticket in the local shop or pub. The local GAA club will not be allowed to do it either. We cannot pass this type of legislation today, as the Minister of State is asking us to do. The restrictions imposed by the Bill, where a person has to buy a ticket on the premises stated on the application, are far too rigid and an authority is being set up to police this.

On the issue of commercial operators using a draw and giving the proceeds to charity, the way to deal with that is to provide that it benefit somebody who holds a charitable licence.

Amendment No. 86 deals with applications to the High Court where "a relevant service provider contravenes an obligation imposed on a licensee by or under this Chapter". The issue I have is that many people who will be opposing or breaching the regulations under this legislation will not be a licensee. They will not have applied for a licence. This is, therefore, important where somebody has a licence and is breaching the 9.30 p.m. watershed or advertising to young people and so forth. What happens to those outside the sector who do not have a licence? Maybe that has been dealt with but it is just something that came to my attention.

The annual draws are gone. I make that point again. Until now, the local GAA club applied to the Garda for a permit. If the amount exceeded a certain limit, the club had to apply to the courts and go to the District Court and all the rest. Those days are gone with this legislation. We welcome the establishment of the gambling regulatory authority. The authority will now have a database and will be very clear that someone must apply for a licence two months before a ticket is sold. The tickets are then sold and the licence remains in place for two months after the draw concludes or 12 months from when the licence was applied for. That is what the legislation states. It then states that, legally, the authority cannot issue another licence until 12 months have elapsed. At best, if the tickets were sold within an hour, which is impossible in these scenarios, the annual 12-month draw will be 16 months and in reality it will probably be 18 or 19 months because clubs and organisations take two months to sell tickets. That section has to go because these organisations run on a calendar and their activists and members now that the draw is in March, August, September or whatever. There are serious problems with the legislation. There is a lot of good intent behind it. I hear what the Minister of State said about what he plans to do and I look forward to his amendments.

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