Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As other speakers have said, we all appreciate the importance of this Bill as regards gambling, especially the online part of it. There is not a TD in this Chamber who has not been approached by some charity, GAA club or school raising money. It is unbelievable that this is being brought in when there is so much uncertainty out there. We are asking for it to be referred back to the committee to get all these concerns out of the way. I could just think of my own town. Two of the big projects I was involved in raising money for myself were the community playground and the resource centre. If this Bill comes in, money could not be raised to build these centres and so on. At the minute in Cashel we have schools raising money because they are underfunded by Government. What happens schools if this comes in and they cannot raise that kind of money? There are also uncertainty if there is a limit on how much can be spent on a draw or how much can be collected. The fire brigade in Cashel has been brilliant down through the years. We helped them out with collecting money for different charities. Are the likes of the fire brigades that raise money every year exempt or are they going to be caught and unable to do that kind of charity work? It just needs to be rethought. That is coming across from all Deputies. It is the lifeblood of most community groups in all our towns that they can do their big draw and bring in big money for the playgrounds and so on. GAA clubs, rugby clubs and soccer clubs are all depending solely most of the time on money raised in our communities like that. This needs to go back to the committee to be rethought and to take away the uncertainty that is being expressed by everyone this evening about what can be done. We all accept there is a problem with gambling, especially online, and there is no issue with that. The issues are with the other part of the Bill and we need that clarified before any more is done.

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