Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are going into a minefield. This goes to the definition of what remote intermediates do. The Minister of State mentioned that the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 provides that the acceptance of bets subject to betting duty are exempt from VAT. The question is whether remote intermediate providers accept bets, and the argument is they do not. A bookie accepts bets, but intermediates provide a service whereby one person places a bet and another person lays it. It is a service and they themselves do not accept the bets. They cannot accept the bets; there must be somebody else to do so. They provide a service to join up people. This is the service provided by BETDAQ and Betfair. If someone wants to place a bet on a horse running in Fairyhouse, BETDAQ will not accept the bet unless somebody else is willing to lay it. All Betfair and BETDAQ do is provide a service where two people can join up. The question which goes to the core of this is whether these companies accept bets and therefore whether they are exempt from VAT.

One must remember that these creatures, and I do not say remote intermediates are bad or we should be against them, were not envisaged when these laws were being drawn up. They are new entities and new ways of providing gambling. They are outside what was thought of when we were dealing with this. They have found ways and loopholes. I suggest that at a minimum there should be an investigation about all of the concerns which have raised for a substantial period of time and it should be in the form of a report, however long it takes. At least the Department needs to take more notice because, with respect, the responses given by the Minister of State are very similar to the responses I have received for the past year and I am still not satisfied we have dealt adequately with the issue.

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