Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the principle that we need to gambling control legislation. The House will recall that during the first session on this Bill my colleague, Senator Cassells, spoke with a good degree of passion around how we need to regulate that space, in particular around how there has to be close co-operation between the commission and gambling regulator. It is about more than advertising.

I have a problem with amendment No. 102. It refers to not allowing advertisements which seek to promote gambling or other speculative financial activities which pose a risk to a person. Virtually every financial activity into which we enter or engage in is speculative. Most radio advertisements refer to the fact that the value of something can go up and well as down, including pensions and so on. The question also needs to be asked in respect of gambling about whether we include the national lottery. Would the lovely lottery advertisements about winning holidays be included if we accept this amendment?

We need regulation in that space. We need levels of education so that people can understand what they are faced with. This speaks to a broader question around people's level of financial knowledge. Whether that applies to crypto or anything else, it is about people's own level of financial awareness. A group of young people from south Dublin visited Leinster House today. They would love to have much more of an understanding of the context around areas like savings and investments as part of the education system.

Whether we are talking about financial or savings products or, arguably, insurance products, depending on how they are interpreted, any of those could be viewed as speculative financial activities. I have a problem with how the amendment is worded. We have previously proposed that there would be close liaison around this, whereby the commission would liaise closely with the new office of the gambling regulator to tackle some of these challenges, in particular the scourge of online gambling. That would be a more effective way to address this.