Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I am glad that a reference is being made to gambling in the legislation, which was a major concern for us and for Senator Wall, who is not here but pressed this issue, I have concerns. The Minister might address this in her response. While the Department of Justice has a role relating to gambling, I think the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has a role too. I tabled amendments Nos. 80 and 81, which relate to gambling and other speculative financial activities. We will come to those later.

Regulation relating to harm needs to be considered. There may be activities which are not criminal offences and which do not breach the law, but they may be damaging. For example, one could consider the way gambling advertisements are targeted, who they are targeted at, and practices which may seek to encourage vulnerable persons to re-enter gambling if they have exited it. Some of those practices have been discussed at length in this House. While the Minister for Justice has a role in respect of illegal gambling, many of the gambling activities we are concerned with are quite legal or even encouraged and in some cases subsidised by the State. The online part of that needs to be carefully examined. I would be concerned if this amendment had the effect of the Minister for Justice being seen as the only way in which we might come at this issue.

I looked at subsection (d) of amendment No. 30, which refers to, "published policies of the Government in respect of any matter referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c)." That is why I ask if the Minister might be able to give us assurances. If the Government or Cabinet looked at a related area of policy at the Minister's request, might the commission be able to have regard to that in the regulation of gambling, so that it would not be constrained to solely considering the policies of the Minister for Justice? The Minister for Justice is related to part of it. Some matters are health issues, such as addiction and how it might be addressed. The Department of Health may provide important information and policies on gambling. Will the Minister clarify that subsection (d) provides a wider scope and that we have not put gambling entirely into the remit of one Minister? That would be unfortunate.