Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

If I am correct the figure the Deputy gave of €1.5 billion covers specifically the horse racing element because the figure for off-shore betting is more substantial, being in the region of €3.5 billion. It covers many areas, not least of which is on-line poker and all the other such activities that are taking place. The Minister for Finance is specifically engaged in this matter with the Revenue Commissioners, as it is a taxation issue. There are two ways to address this. One way, which would be direct and easy to operate - which would overcome the problem that arose last year when we said we would raise the tax from 1% to 2% - would be to make it compulsory for all those involved in the betting industry to pass on the tax to the punter. The difficulty for the smaller bookmakers last year, which was a reasonable point, was that the bigger players could afford to pay 2% and not pass it on whereas the small bookies could not and that would have damaged them substantially and put many of them out of business. That was not my intention, nor the intention of the Minister of Finance in terms of increasing the tax. That is one side of the matter.

The other side of the matter is how we will find a mechanism of taxing companies which are largely located offshore. That is the problem, namely, that there do not come within the Irish taxation system. It is hard to tax a company in another jurisdiction. My view is that if a company is doing a substantial amount of business in any given country, there will have to be agreement, even if it has to be at EU level, that this business can be forthcoming in terms of delivering tax in the jurisdiction from which it is making a great deal of money. The Minister for Finance and the Revenue Commissioners are trying to resolve this matter legally at present.

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