Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, but there was a full deputation of women outside Leinster House yesterday. They were very sensible women. As many of them said, they do not drink or smoke. They came to Leinster House at their own inconvenience to say that they did not want the bingo games that are held in halls all over Ireland interfered with destructively. The Government's proposals, for which the Minister of State has responsibility, are that there will be a revised structure for how the financial elements of bingo are divvied out - costs, prizes and charitable donations. At the very least, the Minister of State should have sent every Member a detailed letter outlining what he proposed to do and how it would work. If 100 Deputies held a game of bingo in the Members' Bar tonight, the Minister of State was the bingo caller and I was arranging how the money was divvied out, we would have some idea of the road being taken.

Remember the people who go to bingo in community halls all over Dublin, Cork city and right across the country. To my knowledge, even the churches have never objected to bingo. That is because it is not seen as gambling. Rather, it is seen as playing a game in the same way that people play other games. It is not gambling. The Bill's Title is the Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill 2019. This is not James Bond in a dicky bow and black suit out for a night in one of the novels or films. We are talking about people's mothers and grannies-----

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