Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 25, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(4) In appointing the members of the Authority, the Minister shall have regard to the objective of there being no fewer than 1 member with lived personal experience of harmful gambling behaviours.

(5) In appointing the members of the Authority, the Minister shall have regard to the importance of an independent Authority and attempt to ensure that no more than 2 members have recent (within the past 5 years) paid employment with any licence holder or potential licence holder.”.

The proposed subsection (4) reflects our desire for those in recovery to have a voice on the authority and ties into a commitment that was given in our all-island recovery charter. The reasons for the proposed subsection (5) are obvious.

I hope the Minister of State will agree to our amendment No. 18, which reads: "participating in the revision of the money laundering or terrorist financing risk assessment as it relates to gambling biennially in collaboration with the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee, liaising with An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners". I believe this provision was included in the heads of the Bill before being omitted.

In amendment No. 20, we are asking that an annual report be produced. We are concerned that there is a level of outsourcing of agency responsibilities. Given the difficulties that may arise in that regard, we propose that the requirement to produce an annual report be included in the Bill. I hope the Minister of State will consider this amendment.

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