Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hear what the Minister of State is saying. Obviously, the Attorney General has his own team working on this. However, I think it is really problematic. We have bets, games and lotteries. That is what gambling is and to have no definition of "betting" is really problematic in legislation that will be the stand-alone and signature piece of legislation for us in this area. I make the point that we are on Report and Final Stages of this legislation which has been on the road for an unbelievably long time. The vast majority of it is really good but there are serious problems. We can fix the definitions but the other parts about the supports for local clubs and groups are more problematic.

Even pool betting is not defined in this. What people would know as tote betting is actually pool betting and the Bill is lacking, in my view, in that regard. I agree with the spirit and the idea behind the amendments. Philanthropic bodies and charities should have no involvement in this. It is too risky. They are dealing with people's money and all of the rest. There are things we will come to later on, for example, that are problematic, including the definition of a philanthropic licence. One of the requirements is that the applicant has to give an undertaking that 30% of the payments are for a philanthropic or charitable purpose. That is impossible. Nobody can give that undertaking. The legislation has to change the word payments to profits. Let us say a charity is holding a draw for a car, for example. The car cost €30,000 and the draw made €40,000, meaning the charity made €10,000 in profit.

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