Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Senator Ardagh's concern about gambling and the like, I wish to ask the Leader if he will arrange for the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, to discuss the presence of gambling casinos and their operation in Dublin, which is in flagrant contravention of the gaming and lotteries legislation. As I understand it, there will be no relevant amendment and all of those operations are illegal but for some reason they have now been in operation for ten years and nobody has done anything to halt them. I would appreciate if the Leader could do something by way of having the Minister in to explain why legislation for which his Department is responsible – I was the relevant Minister some 14 years ago – is not being enforced.

The second issue I wish to raise again concerns the Minister for Justice and Equality. I hope the Leader does not think I am in any sense concentrating on the Minister. Last night we had a very useful debate on the legislation on costs in probate cases. There seemed to be unanimity that the Bill could proceed to Report and Final Stages and although it was not scheduled to take place last night, in my view it could be done in five minutes some time next week if the Minister is here to deal with it.