Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the kind of stuff we want to show to our constituents and the people in the local GAA club and elsewhere who want to know about the draws they have been running. At the moment, I am sure like many Members of the House, I am going to many functions full of tickets. They are all for very good community events and needs. The Minister of State has raised a question, particularly in the minds of the organisers, as to whether they will now have to meet more stringent conditions and new regulations. I am not clear as to whether the Minister of State will bring new regulations. I know the legislation is fairly simple but are there regulations to give effect to what the Minister of State is proposing on bingo? I would say from my ministerial experience that there probably will be a need for regulations. Why is the Minister of State visiting all of this on people? It is a total waste of the Department's time and resources. Really, the Department of Justice and Equality should be doing better things with its time and money than threatening a pastime that is so important, particularly to women.

Those who regularly visit people in nursing homes will know that in many nursing homes bingo is offered one or two days a week. The staff often donate the prize and the patients' families donate. Please let us not have a situation where somebody who is a busybody starts to say this is some kind of gaming and that somehow or other it is subject to some kind of regulation. The Minister of State has opened a field of uncertainty. I want him to make it clear tonight that it does not affect people. I still do not know why the Minister of State has it in the legislation. Perhaps he should introduce a side Bill that deals with bingo only but I would not advise that either. The Minister of State really needs to give us an explanation. If he has that written explanation which everybody deserves to have I ask him to pass it around.

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