Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Everyone here has been very supportive of these two industries. This is a 26% increase in one year. In the context of the budgetary challenges we have been facing, that is a pretty extraordinary increase in one year, and it is on the back of virtually doubling the revenue stream we will get from betting tax next year. The Department of Finance is predicting that there will be an extra revenue stream of €25 million. We are actually only bringing in €25 million from bookmakers at the moment from betting tax. One must look back as far as 2007 to see a revenue stream of more than €36 million coming from betting tax.

We are now going back to raising much more money from betting tax because we are bringing into the tax net the way in which many people bet remotely now, on their phones or computers. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, was anxious that we would get that system up and running before we had the debate on the appropriate rate. The focus within the Department of Finance has been getting remote betting working from a tax point of view. A number of countries which have tried to do this and failed and others which have done it somewhat successfully are watching this carefully but actually getting a revenue stream from online activity is never straightforward, so it was important to work with the industry here and get a system that functions. The Minister has made it clear that he is open to a debate on the rate. My views on the appropriate rate for betting tax are well known. I have often spoken about the need for 2% or 3% or even a higher percentage but the important thing is that we get it working. As a result of what the Minister has done, we now see an increase of €14 million going into this industry. Let us welcome progress when it is there. We have seen a doubling of the revenue stream coming from betting and we can now have that debate on the appropriate rate in future.

The betting tax provisions have had to go through the European Commission in respect of state aid rules. This has not been straightforward. It has gone to the Commission twice, because using a portion of or all betting revenue to support an industry can be and is challenged by other countries under competition rules and state aid rules. However, the outcome for the industry has been very positive this year and we will hopefully build on it next year. I take Deputy Ferris's point that there are many pressures on expenditure at the moment, so this sounds like a great deal of money for a sector to people who do not understand the sector and its significance. That is why we all have a responsibility to explain why this sector is so significant and so important for parts of Ireland that often do not have much else. I hope people can support what we are doing and we will come back and have a discussion on the rate issue at a later date.