David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The question on what form the authority will take is an extremely good one. We have commissioned research to inform us on the best way of structuring an authority and what type of governance it should have. Should it have a board, a commission or a chief executive format and what various sections should it have internally? We should have the information from the research by the summer. As the Deputy said, we want an authority that will be fully active, fully engaged and independent of the Government and Minister of the day so that any perception of pressure or lobbying will not arise.

The next task we have is to publish the heads of the Bill. We will be building on the 2013 Bill, the Fianna Fáil Bill and, crucially, the interdepartmental working group on the licensing and regulation of gambling that we introduced last March. It took a great deal of work, time and effort to put it together. I hope we will have this legislation. The Taoiseach has indicated the whole process will take 18 months to complete.