Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To clarify, the Minister mentioned that people are betting online rather than betting in bookies' shops. He will see that my amendment states: "a rate of 3 per cent betting duty for online and in-shop bets" which means the rate is across the board. That replicates what is being done in terms of the legislation that has been passed but is being held up in Europe. Detailed discussion and examination of options are required. The Department does such work and I hope it will be able to look at options. We have triggered or the Department or the Government have triggered different consultations on different measures in the past. Introducing the rate would be worthwhile. The Minister has outlined clearly the challenges faced by the horse racing industry, particularly in terms of dropping down the world ranking. There are other issues in the sector which may not have been managed as well as possible during the boom times. However, we need to preserve the industry and support it where possible.

There are other issues involved. We always focus on betting duties in terms of horse and greyhound racing. People claim more money is bet on other sports, such as a game between Ireland and Scotland, rather than on a race at Punchestown or wherever, a local GAA match, the roulette table and so on. A huge section of gambling is not taxed and we need to get to grips with the issue. People who have a flutter and place a bet on black or red at the roulette table can afford to pay a betting duty of between 1% and 3%. It is difficult to collect the duty but it is not impossible. In the same way it is a bit of a headache to collect a 1% charge on online gambling but it will be done, hopefully successfully, when approval is obtained from the European Commission in respect of matters relating to remote access betting, and so on.

All other types of gambling are not being taxed, so I suggest that we move into this area.

In the context of amendment No. 68, the Minister indicated what was amended in the 2013 legislation. The times involved appear to be the same as those outlined in this instance.