Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the Paddy Power advertisement relating to betting on the outcome of the trial of Oscar Pistorius. The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has asked for the advertisement to be withdrawn, which has been done pending an investigation. I do not know why it was done pending an investigation. There were 124,000 online complaints about the advertisement. Paddy Power is taking bets on the trial of Oscar Pistorius, which is disgraceful. We are concerned here with the death of a woman. It is outrageous that any betting company would do this. I can do no more than ask in Seanad Éireann for Paddy Power to voluntarily remove this campaign in Ireland. As of this morning, betting is still going on. If Paddy Power does not have the decency to do act people in Ireland should do the decent thing and abandon Paddy Power for this week or whatever. It is a good business but taking bets on this is wrong. The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland has done nothing about it while the authority in the UK has. The advertisement is not being shown in Ireland but the betting is happening here online and in bookies. I do not know what we can do about it other than bring it to people's attention. Perhaps this is what Paddy Power wants. It is getting great publicity out of it but it is bad publicity on the back of a dead woman. If any of us go into branches of Paddy Power and bet on it, we should hang our heads in shame. I would even say that people should not go into branches of Paddy Power at all. We should show it what we are made of.