Mr. Kevin Murphy:

The Bill makes it quite clear, first, that the Government will not legislate for FOBTs, fixed odds betting terminals. The Bill also alludes to the fact that no FOBT related activity will be permitted in any way. We are aware that the off-course betting industry has made representations to the effect that it would like the legislation to be structured to permit devices such as tablets to be used in betting shops. The rationale for this, apparently, is that the industry claims it would enable it to compete in betting shops with all the websites. However, the reality is that all of the major bookmakers that have betting shops in Ireland have betting websites, so what is the industry saying? Is it saying it needs to be able to compete with itself? That is how it sounds.