Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Not to be outdone by the Deputies Healy-Rae I will get my anecdote in first. When I was a student I worked at the dogs in Harold's Cross and Shelbourne Park and learnt a very valuable lesson. I calculated the payout on the tote. That was my job, a very sophisticated mathematical formula. I learnt that the bookies drove in Mercedes and the punters came on bicycles or buses. The job supplemented my income as a student to forward my studies.

I support this Bill and commend Deputies Jack Chambers, Rabbitte and O'Callaghan on bringing it forward. I support the call for an independent office to regulate the gambling industry. This means that the gambling regulator must operate outside the Department of Justice and Equality with powers to impose significant fines on gambling firms which do not comply with the new laws. Gambling addiction is a scourge in Ireland. Up to 40,000 people have gambling problems. These figures are from 2015 and I imagine the problem is much greater than that. Ireland has the third highest gambling losses in the world and the health and social costs of problem gambling are very destructive to our society. In the US gambling addiction leads to one in five attempted suicides which is double the number for the next addiction.

In respect of gambling addiction services in Clare, we have Bushypark addiction treatment centre. It has identified that gambling produces strained and lost relationships, interferes with responsibility at home and at work and also leads to financial catastrophe - including the loss of jobs, businesses and homes. I support this Bill and commend it to the House. The central tenet of the legislation is to establish an independent regulatory authority that will impose fines on gambling firms and casinos that do not comply. It will also have powers to restrict online and TV advertising.

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