Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Hear me out and then I will let everybody come in. It is directed at broadcasting but it is important that everybody gets their answer in it. Based on what I studied, there are 1,069 people working with the witnesses. As somebody coming from the private sector and a business background, they are providing a free service. They are being absolutely hammered with costs, like every other business in Ireland, between wages, energy and insurance. They are haemorrhaging money with advertising based on social media. It has increased and has tsunamied in on top of us. If they do not mind me saying, rightly so, the cord has been cut on any income arising from gambling and alcohol. Those alone are four hits, and then lobbed on top of that is the whole additionality factor. Whoever put that in place was simply wrong and unfair, in my opinion, and I would like to get the witnesses’ opinion on it. How are the witnesses surviving and, more importantly, how will they survive in the future unless we are happy with this Bill that is going through? I honestly fear for the future of the people in this room, of who they are representing, unless something strong is done. They simply have to get a higher percentage of the pot or else it is not commercially feasible to continue to do what they are doing. Every statistic I outlined there will increase rather than decrease. They will lose more revenue in advertising and because of cost increases. I apologise, I did not want to go on too long but that is where I am coming from. I would like to get a feel from everybody on that.