Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise two issues with the Deputy Leader of the House. The first is a Defence Forces issue and one that could benefit the terrific Defence Forces families we have in this country. Since the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association medical assistance scheme, PMAS, has been waiting on confirmation that it can continue to operate on a permanent footing after December of this year and under the current Northern Ireland planned healthcare scheme. The issue of worry for PDFORRA, is that the Northern Ireland planned healthcare scheme is due to end in December of this year. This is at a time when we should be ensuring that members of the Defence Forces can continue and advance in their careers with a working and workable health scheme. The PMAS scheme was described at a recent meeting with the HSE as an excellent initiative. It is a scheme with more than 4,000 PDFORRA members and PDFORRA is seeking to extend it to family members. This would be a fantastic development.

The reason I am raising this issue is because the Department of Health in Northern Ireland has introduced a Republic of Ireland reimbursement scheme for a period of 12 months. This new scheme opened on 1 July 2021 and is available to Northern Ireland residents, according to that Department's press release. The scheme provides an option for patients who may wish to access private treatment in the Republic of Ireland and allows them to claim reimbursement of health and social care equivalent costs. The Department of Health in the North described this scheme as being based on the EU cross-border healthcare directive. From this, we can understand the worry of PDFORRA and others who are waiting on news of the extension of the scheme here. In the case of PDFORRA, it wants to expand its scheme to include Defence Forces families. It sees the Northern Ireland Department of Health introducing a scheme that will run until at least the middle of next year, while there is no word on the extension of a similar scheme here, with the December deadline on the horizon. I ask the Deputy Leader, once again, to raise this matter with the Minister for Health and the Minister for Defence.

The second issue I wish to raise today is the continuing and urgent need to ban gambling advertising. In a speech last week, President Michael D. Higgins hit out at what he described as "dangerous" gambling advertisements which he said were causing so much damage to families and individuals. The President went on to say that his heart has been broken regularly during the pandemic as he watched advertisement after advertisement for gambling during sports programmes accompanied by what he described as the "minimal, tokenistic invitations to be responsible". He said it was "not good enough". Once again, the President was speaking on behalf of many of us. Since introducing our Bill in the Seanad to ban gambling advertising, I have been inundated with calls and emails from Irish people who feel the exact same way as our President. Many cannot enjoy sport anymore because they are flooded with ads to gamble before, during and after the event that they are trying to watch. What disturbs me is that we still have no watershed on gambling advertising in this country and our children are being exposed to a highly addictive behaviour.

The eighth anniversary of the 2013 gambling Bill will take place on 15 July next. We need a ban on gambling advertising. We cannot allow this to continue any further. We have introduced a Bill that could be accepted by the Government. Time is ticking. We are storing up a serious health problem for this country by not acting now.