Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

His suits are fancier than mine.

In respect of the amendment, Senator Higgins knows my passion for this subject. I will never forget last summer. One of my favourite things when I am not attending a match on a Sunday is listening to "Sunday Sport" on RTÉ Radio One. In between matches there are some very good documentaries and other programmes. There was an absolutely fantastic piece with Oisín McConville, one of the greatest GAA stars ever, whose life was, unfortunately, blighted by gambling. He spoke extensively on Radio One for about half an hour on all of the various low points in his life. It was a stirring piece. I have great time for the man. He came to my GAA club to talk to young people to warn them about the impact of gambling and what it can do to them. He is an ambassador not just for our sport, but for our country.

When the piece was over, Radio One said it would break and go to the opening day of racing at the Curragh, brought to the audience by BoyleSports. I said, "Oh my God." That goes back to the earlier point on the balance with respect to commercial reality. I remember as a young journalist in a newsroom being told in no uncertain terms that commercial reality dictates whether we stayed alive. RTÉ did its public service by having a piece of programming that spoke to the heart of a matter of one of the greatest blights in our country, and skipped seamlessly from that into a feature race being sponsored by one of the largest bookies on the Continent. It almost defied belief, but it did not really because that is the reality we are living in.

This needs to be addressed. It goes to why we have our amendment, which I ask the Minister to accept. In terms of the Bill reflecting Government policy, we will establish a gambling commissioner to deal with all of this. It has become entrenched in our society. When sports stars are interviewed after matches there are gambling logos behind them. There are a lot of difficulties about saying that we are going to ban, from a broadcasting sense, gambling products because they are so entrenched it will lead to many difficulties.We must look at this as a whole, which is why the gambling commissioner is important. This is how we will tackle it. It is why we asked for an amendment. It was simply for this Bill to reflect Government policy on gambling because it will cross a multitude of things. It can happen. I made the point regarding how the French Government banned it for the feature match of the Six Nations. They could not show the Guinness logo on the pitch because the French Government had banned it. It can happen. It happened in Formula One, snooker and places where tobacco had a stranglehold. That was broken and the same thing can happen with gambling. It must be addressed as a whole. I support Senator Higgins 100% regarding what she is trying to do but I think we should do it through the gambling legislation and the gambling regulator. It must be reflected in the Bill, which is why we are saying it should be reflected in Government policy.