Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013 has been the subject of a number of delays, primarily arising from the need to ensure that the provisions relating to prosecution and enforcement were robust and the need to notify the EU Commission under the EU Technical Standards Directive. The Bill was first published in July 2012 but further work was required around the area of prosecution and enforcement. Given the resulting significant changes to the Bill, it was republished in July 2013. On publication, the Bill entered a standstill period of three months under the EU Technical Standards Directive.

The Bill was amended on Committee Stage in the Dail to allow the Revenue Commissioners to take on the functions ascribed to the Minister for Justice and Equality around compliance. The advice from the Attorney General's office was that these amendments constituted a substantial policy change and, accordingly, had to be notified under the EU Technical Standards Directive. Said notification took place in June 2014, giving rise to a standstill period of three months to the end of September 2014.

At the end of this period, the Department received detailed opinions from the Commission around provisions in the Bill restricting service providers in their engagement with unlicensed remote operators and also raising concerns at the prohibition on any person, who may be licensed by another jurisdiction, from offering betting services to persons within the Republic, unless the person holds a licence issued by the competent authority in Ireland. There interventions under the EU Technical Standards Directive necessitated an extension of the standstill period until January 2015.

The standstill period has now ended and Committee Stage is provisionally scheduled for the Seanad on 11 February.

While a period of time is required to allow remote operations to become licensed, the betting duty will be applied to the remote sector as soon as possible once the legislation has been enacted. It is impossible to accurately estimate the additional revenue which will be raised for the Exchequer. However, using available data, it has been estimated that the extension of the betting duty to remote operations could raise up to €25 million in a full year.

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