Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, this was ahead of schedule so I missed some of the earlier contributions, which went very swiftly. Although it is in the Register of Member's Interests, I want to declare that I am a director of a not-for-profit music festival in Donegal. Everyone is welcome to come on 12 July. This music festival, being not for profit, also operates a philanthropic, lottery licence. I just wanted to clarify this.

This amendment deals with section 9 which repeals what would be, with the passage of this legislation, outdated legislation. However, what the Minister of State is bringing forward here is going to destroy the fundraising abilities of many local organisations in my community. The Minister of State is shaking his head but I will give examples of what I mean. The North West Hospice has a lottery on Ocean FM, a local broadcaster. The prize fund is just €20,000. Under this legislation, the lottery will be banned from being broadcast on the radio station. Local GAA clubs that raffle a car to help the development of their pitches will not be allowed to advertise the product on social media except to those who like their Facebook page. It means it is not possible anymore. If we look on Facebook we see community groups raffling houses to try to gather funding for local organisations. With this legislation, they will not be allowed to do so. Yes, they can advertise, including on social media, but the only people they can advertise to are the people who like their page. It makes no sense. That is why the Government is going to destroy this.

The problem with this legislation is that while we are revoking other legislation, a horse and cart is already being driven through the existing legislation, and the legislation before us does not deal with it. For example, "gaming" and "lottery" are defined as "an activity engaged in by a person on the payment of money by the person". Does the Minister of State understand that there are companies which have prize funds of half a million euro and more? These are major companies that do not fall under the existing legislation that is being repealed. Why? It is because they do two things. The first is that they offer free entry. That does not fit the definition of "gaming" and "lottery" in the legislation because no payment was made with the offer of free entry. Most people do not take the free entry, they just pay the €10, €20 or in some cases, €100 for the ticket online. The second thing they do is ask a question. For example, this might be something like how many weeks there are in the year what comes after Saturday. Therefore, it moves out of a lottery into a skill-based game. Those two provisions allow for numerous companies to target their advertisements at people right across the State. This legislation does nothing for them. We are repealing old, outdated legislation because that allowed them to drive a horse and cart through the legislation but this legislation does the same. I could name these numerous companies in the Dáil record but I will not do so. They will continue to be operational because of the definitions in this legislation. However, if my local GAA club wants to do a car draw, it will be prevented from advertising that to the community in which it operates, if those individuals are not already subscribed to the club's Facebook page. That is just nonsense. If the club decides to boost the posts to the community or the parish in which it operates, it will be an offence. That is what this legislation does. The Minister of State has brought forward amendments that go some of the way but the amendments only go for prize winnings that are less than €10,000. This means that draws with prizes of cars or houses will not be possible. That is terrible.

Let us consider annual draws. How the hell are the FAI or the GAA going to have an annual draw? Such a draw is not possible under this legislation. I can go through that in detail with the Minister of State. All of these good organisations that do so much valuable stuff in our community have a timeframe. People involved in the scouts know that coming up to September they will have their draw. The FAI has it at a different time. The GAA has its national draw. Of course they will be able to get a one-off lottery licence, but what are the rules that have been set down in this legislation? First of all, the lottery has to applied for 60 days before any tickets can be sold. The tickets can then be sold, let us say for only a month. After that, the licence lasts for at least two months. Then and only then, can a new licence be applied for, when 12 months expires after that point. This means that organisations are into a period of, not 12 months, but more like 17 or 18 months. It means that every year the date will be different for organisations, groups and franchises across the State that are used to having an annual draw in February, June or July. It is bonkers.

This legislation was drafted, and rightly so, and I and my party support it, to regulate gambling, but fundraising has been thrown into the middle of it. Every single Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Member came and voted to apply many of these measures that we apply to Paddy Power and Betfair to our local communities that are trying to raise funds. Most people who put their hand into their pocket and give money to the Irish Cancer Society, the FAI or the GAA for the chance of winning a car or whatever do not see it as gambling. They see it as supporting an organisation which is doing so much good in their community. That is why I am saying that we are revoking old, outdated legislation but what the Minister of State is doing here is seriously problematic because it will crush the fundraising ability of local organisations.

I do not believe that is the Minister of State's intention but his intention does not matter because this is what the law is going to state. The Government must deal with this. I suggest that the Bill goes back to Committee Stage. We are on Report and Final Stages in the Dáil but the legislation should go back to Committee Stage so that this issue can be dealt with. I have been lobbied by many different groups. They will look at this legislation and see that the Government put in a provision that makes political parties exempt. We can advertise on social media. We can hold draws for cars and houses. We do not have to just advertise to people who like our Facebook page but can advertise as much as we want. We can do all of that. Political parties are exempt from these regulations.

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