Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister recognise the substantially important aspect of this question related to jobs in this country, particularly businesses in my constituency but also throughout other constituencies where real people are employed by real businesses? How can he possibly introduce an on-line betting tax when seven of the top ten operators in this country are not based here in terms of their servers? It is a very complex matter.

Is the Minister aware of a recent announcement by William Hill that it has decided to get out of the British market in respect of Internet betting, where it describes the challenge of competing with betting exchanges and off-shore tele-betting operators, all of whom have been benefited from significant cost and tax advantages over UK bookmakers? Does he accept that if we are serious about this, we must keep people employed in this country and the introduction of an arbitrary tax could ensure that jobs are lost?

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