Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are demonstrations from time to time outside of this House. Today, a number of people were here protesting about changes made by the Department of Justice and Equality to the circumstances and way in which bingo is operated in various centres in the country. All of that is dealt under the Gaming and Lotteries Act, as amended.

The simple fact is that there is a far more serious issue that is not being addressed at all. I refer to the flagrant breaches of the law being perpetrated daily on our main streets in our main cities - Cork and Dublin I believe - whereby casinos, gaming arcades and amusement arcades are being operated without any appropriate legal foundation whatever. In the city of Dublin the local authority, many years ago, resolved to cancel authority for amusement machines, one-armed bandits and gaming machines being operated in arcades in the city. A case went to the Supreme Court about it. The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the local authority and held that the operation of these machines in Dublin, thereafter, was illegal. Since that time a number of these arcades, amusement places or casinos, as they call themselves on the outside, have cropped up now and are open. One of them, I am reliably informed, has in its entrance an ATM machine. This is absolutely illegal. There is no possible basis for opening and maintaining these places. They are exploiting the weak-minded, in my view, in an unconscionable way but, most important, they are breaking the law of the land. Members of An Garda Síochána have the right to visit premises and seize gaming machines, which are being operated illegally. That should happen right across Dublin. The Garda authorities in Dublin are not doing that. If this is being done on the advice of the Attorney General then I would like see why it is that a clear breach of the law of the land is being countenanced by the Attorney General. If it is not being done on the advice of the Attorney General then it amounts to a gross dereliction of duty.

Finally, I want to say that an awful lot of terrible misery arises from a gambling addiction. Gaming machines, such as they have in Britain all over the place and in Ireland in certain restricted places, subject to the entitlement of local authorities to decide locations, are an easy entry into addictive gambling. It is about time that the law was upheld. It is about time these places were closed. I would like the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to this House and explain why it is that in the city of Dublin casinos and amusement arcades, with these machines, are operating flagrantly in breach of the law of the land? Why is that situation being tolerated? What do the Minister and the Garda Commissioner propose to do to stop it?