James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that there is a lack of supports for people facing gambling addiction and non-substance addictions in general. They were not taken seriously for a long time. One of the key reasons for putting the social impact fund into this legislation is to make the industry pay for much of the damage it is causing.

Section 52 provides that the social impact fund shall be funded by annual contributions from licensees except for charitable or philanthropic licensees. Contributions to the fund will be determined by the authority in accordance with regulations made by the Minister. The purpose of the Deputy's amendment is to insert a new subsection 7 into section 52 to set out various criteria that the Minister must consider when determining the level of contribution to the social impact fund by licensees. Unfortunately, I cannot accept the amendment. The section as drafted provides for the discretion of the authority to determine the needs of operating the social impact fund and the level of contributions required to operate the fund and to finance those activities and projects on an annual or multi-annual basis. I recognise the intention behind the Deputy's amendment. It is constructive and seeks to bring certainty to calculating the level of contributions to the fund from smaller licensees. I assure the Deputy that the contributions from small independent bookmakers will not be the same as those for large operators. I assure him that the purpose is to ensure there are sufficient funds for the social impact fund but the criteria set out in the amendment are not necessary to achieve that aim.

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