Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 120:

In page 48, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “30. The Minister shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on options available for the introduction of a rate of 3 per cent betting duty for online and in-shop bets to be paid by the customer.”.

I have been raising this for a number of years. It relates to something that has gone untaxed for a long time. We have introduced in recent Finance Acts a betting duty for shops and online in respect of remote operators. We have also introduced new legislation to govern that.

Issues relating to the gambling control Bill have been well rehearsed and are well overdue. There is a huge pressure on the small operators. Currently they pay the 1% betting duty out of their profits which has quite an impact on them. My view is that there should be a 3% rate on winnings and paid by the customer. That would increase the profits of the bookmaker because the tax would be passed on to the customer. We discussed this last year and I thought the suggestion then was let us get the legislation for the 1% bedded down and think about increasing it if needs be afterwards. The needs be is now. This can bring in extra revenue for the State. We are facing a year of significant pressure on revenue not to mention the issue of public pay and impending industrial disputes, strike action and so on. In this budget the Government has spent over half of next year’s budget. The fiscal space has dwindled from €1.2 billion to €530 million. Therefore, I believe this is one of the measures that can increase the overall fiscal space and it should be considered. Other areas related to gambling and which are not subject to taxation should be taxed. Large numbers of transactions take place in respect of other types of activity, such as roulette tables, and the other parts of the gambling books that are not taxed but should be.