Mr. John Roche:

Technically, the Deputy could do so. However, that has been tried on numerous occasions. What normally happens is that the local authority deals with the request under the planning regulations. If a person was to open a shop tomorrow to sell newspapers and then decide on a whim to install half a dozen machines in a back room, planning permission regulations would not permit it. In the past ten or 12 years the association has been responsible for closing many such outlets.

We brought this issue to the fore as far back as 2005 or 2006 - I have the written evidence here - because we knew the difficulties arising from the existing legislation. Our engagement has been with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, rather than the Minister for Justice and Equality, our argument being that the planning Acts should be used more stringently to prevent that type of thing from happening. It does still happen on occasion, but where we know about it, we go after it.