Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

It happened in your county, a Chathaoirligh. On one of many occasions when we had fun, enjoyment and gaiety at the greyhound races rather than at Limerick Junction, we had just secured a dog called Feakle's Champion. His name still lingers on in my memory and nightmares. As I thought he was a real champion, I decided to pass on the word to my buddies that he was worth a little flutter. It so happened that a Cork Christian Brother overheard me who had a disposition for gambling. I knew nothing about it because I was just a young fellow at the time.

It appears that the Cork Christian Brother took my word more seriously than some of my school pals and invested rather heavily in Feakle's Champion in the first round before everyone else would discover that he was a real champion. Unfortunately, Feakle's Champion got hit by the other greyhound on the first bend, turning the hare at a coursing meeting, and Feakle's Champion was out of the meeting. I will not disclose how I suffered afterwards. While I did not suffer any physical punishment, I suffered in the school in the subsequent days and weeks for sharing that little secret with my school pals.

I wished to share that tale as it still occasionally lives on in my nightmares. On a more serious note, coming back to the principle involved in this issue, we should seek to safeguard our children from becoming compulsive gamblers. We should establish the incidence of addicted adult compulsive gamblers who were permitted to gamble on the tote when under 18 years of age. I make no apologies for stating that all possible measures to address the issue should be brought forward.

There is a fine line between being a killjoy and providing safeguards for children. Senator Cummins is trying to provide a safeguard and I will not accuse him of being a killjoy. He probably goes to the races more than me, presumably with his family. However, I am concerned that the measure put forward by the Senator could be a bureaucratic nightmare. I listened to the debate in my office and tried to envisage what the situation would be like if this measure were adopted. No law is better than bad law and this measure would be bad law. In my limited experience of going to race meetings, although I am open to correction, there is usually a half hour between races. Usually the last ten minutes or quarter of an hour is spent queuing for the tote and if it is a big meeting, there could be up to 100 people queuing. How would one supervise the queue to enforce Senator Cummins' proposed regulation? It would be a nightmare scenario with massive disruption. With many families present, one would deem many people to be under 18 years of age and would try to identify and challenge them. If even one person decided to confront the challenger and had parental support, there would be chaos and disruption. I wish to speak about the issue of parental supervision shortly, as it has been mentioned several times this evening. I am not speaking about money but about the fun, gaiety and enjoyment of the occasion. Senator Cummins's proposals are not workable.