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

Obviously, the delays were unsatisfactory but they were out of our hands. Most of the delays were caused by the directive of the European Commission to which I referred. The Committee Stage is now scheduled for 11 February in the Seanad.

The Deputy will recall that we took out a whole section of the Bill about the longer opening hours for bookies' premises, etc., and enacted it in the Finance Bill. It is now a much slimmer Bill and it is down to the net issues of online betting. I would hope that once we get it enacted and the President signs it, shortly afterwards it will be operational.

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