Mr. Aubrey McCarthy:

I am chairman of a rehabilitation centre called Tiglin. It is a national rehabilitation centre and we deal with all forms of gambling. We were approached by the LGAI to put forward a package to see what we could provide if it was allowed to regulate its own industry and the Minister provided a social fund. We submitted education officers to visit schools and undertook a series of case studies.

Deputy Finian McGrath asked about the figures. A study was carried out by Delaney and Wall in UCD which found that approximately 1% of the population - about 40,000 people - suffered from gambling addiction problems. We conducted a study of our graduates since 2009 and found that 68% were co-morbidly addicted to gambling and some other addictions also.