Mr. Niall Cody:

Our obligation is to collect tax that is due, and tax is due on gaming, for example, under EU and Irish VAT law. We have engaged consistently. I think I said last week that 14 years ago I was at a meeting about what was going to be the gambling regulation Bill with the Department of Justice, the Department of Finance, the Office of the Attorney General and us. Every few years the issue would come up and the question would be asked why we are collecting tax on what may well be unregulated – we will use that term – areas or where a local authority has banned slot machines. The legislation provides that where a District Court has granted the authority, we have to grant the licence. We operate within the legal framework.

We did a big exercise between 2017 and 2019 on illegal gaming machines. We seized 450 across the country, leading to an increase in application for licensing.

The gaming premises has to be licensed and each machine has to be licensed. It is a little like our discussion around VRT. Some people took out licences and used them as machine licences when they were clearly not. We seized more than 450 gaming machines throughout the country. There will probably be legal challenges relating to that area. There is good co-operation between Revenue, the Garda, the Department of Justice and the courts. Everybody knows what is happening, but the relevant legislation dates from 1931 and 1956.