Seanad debates

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill 2019: Report and Final Stages

 

2:30 pm

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Private members clubs are currently not covered by the law. We know this. There is no intention in the proposals being brought forward by this Bill to have any impact on those clubs. That is not the intention. Beyond that, the Senator will be aware that I have been very open on the intention of establishing a regulator. I have changed that from being an office in the Department of Justice and Equality to being an independent regulator. I beefed up the proposal and gained Government approval. We had a year long inter-departmental working group, which looked at every aspect of this. I can assure the Senators that it is extraordinarily complicated, and Senator McDowell has already alluded to that. It is not easy. As soon as that report was cleared by Government I published it so everyone could have sight of it, read it and give us feedback on it. We had an open day at Farmleigh House recently to which all the interested groups were invited, and they did attend. I believe there were 120 people there. We held a one day seminar on this issue. The work goes on. We are now updating the 2013 heads of the Bill so we can bring forward the legislation, hopefully in the autumn, for the consideration of the Houses and establish it. I reiterate that the definitions the Senator's amendment proposes to insert into the Bill do not appear anywhere else in the text of the Bill or the 1956 Act. With respect, those definitions would not do anything but they may cause uncertainty. They will not have any impact anywhere when they are not referenced anywhere else in the legislation. I hope the Senator can accept my bona fides here. Again, the Senator will be aware that when we bring forward legislation to the Houses in the autumn, Senators - and the Deputies in the other House - can amend and change and make suggestions, to which I am very open. Any advice we can get on this will be welcome at that time.

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