Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State referred to the exemption for An Garda Síochána. I do not know how we can correlate an exemption for An Garda Síochána, which is for very sensitive information, and an exemption for a gambling authority. To be honest that does not sit with me.

The Minister of State spoke about the systems being set up already to ensure transparency. In another section, the issue will come up on levies that will be put onto companies. Perhaps I picked the Minister of State up wrong and maybe he will clarify. The Minister of State said the information on what levies or charges would be faced by licensees should not be public knowledge. I would like to bring forward an amendment on this, but from my point of view the products that are most addictive should have a higher levy. This type of model is used in New Zealand. I will speak on this shortly. This is why we need the transparency and the freedom of information. If some companies have a product with a certain level of addiction or risk and other products have a much higher risk then we need to know. There is also the issue of profitability. Some companies are making huge profits on certain products. We do not know about those products. We know for a fact there are certain products that are highly addictive and are especially targeted at people who are at risk of problem gambling. We need to know that information. Why would that information be kept confidential and not for the public view?

We believe this amendment is constructive. I hear what the Minister of State said and that he feels it is covered but I do not believe it goes far enough. The whole issue of transparency must go to the heart of this.

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