Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----going down to a hall to play a game, albeit one that certainly has an element of prizes in it. One pays for the lines and cards and, at the end of the night, there might be a jackpot or roll-over.

People who win go home happy and people who do not win go home determined to come the next week when perhaps their luck will change and they will win a line, a card or one of the super prizes. Why decide to insert this absolutely harmless pastime into the gaming and lotteries Bill? It was an unwise decision. The Minister of State's motives may have been well meant but he seriously needs to explain to people, and particularly to women, up and down the country what exactly it is that he proposes to do, why he proposes to do it and what impact it will have on a fairly harmless fun pastime that is at the heart of a lot of communities up and down the country.

Earlier today, I understood the Minister of State was going to send us out a letter or a card with the details of what he was proposing so we in turn could pass it on to people and tell them they do not need to worry because this is what will happen and how it will happen. Perhaps the Minister of State has it in his back pocket because he looks like he is looking at a card. I ask him to share it with us.

I told the Taoiseach earlier that one of the women at the protest yesterday lives in my area. She suffers from multiple disabilities and is a table tennis champion. Yesterday, she said that if she loses her game of bingo, and she often travels quite far to play, she will lose some of the pleasures in her life. The Minister of State has to know that throughout the country people collect for their local GAA club through weekly draws and accumulators in practically every bar, community-based restaurant and clubhouse in Ireland. Tonight, those people are all asking what will happen. The Minister of State is saying that if something is under a €5,000 limit it will not be affected.

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