Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this Bill. I compliment Deputies Jack Chambers and Jim O'Callaghan. We can call them the Jack and Jill or Jack and Jim or whatever show but fair dues to them. We urgently need to address the expanding problem of gambling and specifically the problem of online gambling addiction. It is a plague on many families. I also salute the work carried out by many groups but especially Aiséirí in the town of Cahir - it is there now nearly 40 years - and the Aislinn Centre in Ballyragget in County Kilkenny, which I was involved in setting up. The work they have done has found that younger and younger people are being affected on a daily basis.

They have done much work to restore people on their journey into recovery from addictions of all kinds. Statistics and information from Spunout.ierevealed that there are 40,000 people in Ireland with a gambling addiction. In addition, over €5 billion a year is gambled - that is €10,000 per minute. That is savage money. It has also been found that Ireland has the third highest per capitarating in the world for losses in gambling. That is another staggering figure. Last year, Ireland's losses from gambling totalled an enormous €2.1 billion. Online gambling is the most popular method, with almost half of the gambling losses coming from that sector. The second most popular method of gambling is traditional betting. Gambling is easily accessible, especially when Ireland has approximately 1,100 bookmakers shops, 19 private members clubs and casinos, 122 licensed gaming arcades and over 10,000 gambling machines.

We had a proposal for a massive casino in Tipperary but, thankfully, the Minister at the time, Deputy Alan Shatter, did not grant it a licence. We have to deal with this issue and, as other people have referred to, especially the online aspect available on phones, at work, at home, in the bed and everywhere. It is too easy for people to gamble. There are unscrupulous bookies, although there are a lot of good ones as well who gave much employment over the years. Regulation is badly needed. I am supporting Jack and Jim's Bill as I think it is very important. I hope it will not be languishing too long-----

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