Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not waste my time talking about the negatives. Were I the proposer of this legislation, I would be very disappointed. This is a Government Minister of State coming in to three Government Senators to more or less tell them that there is a lot of work to do, there is huge concern, there are legitimate objectives, and there is public interest but in conclusion it is not proposed to do anything. I would be shocked and shattered. I would expect that kind of treatment directed towards this side of the House or to me. I must say I am disappointed.

Section 3 of the Bill talks about amending section 46 of the principal Act to make it a criminal offence for the bookmaker to use national lottery or any other products for the purpose of a betting offer by increasing the penalties. It is all reasonable. I commend Senators Ward, Currie and Carrigy on the work they put into the Bill, and they have clearly put a lot of work into it. They believe in it. Others have been in touch with us about the Bill. For the Minister of State to say they can go off on their holidays and they have a lot of work to do, let us be honest, I do not know if it is a surprise to them. Whether the Minister of State engaged with them before - I do not need to know - I would be very disappointed if I had gone to this trouble. I wish them well. All they can do is continue to work away at it. I hope that after the summer they will have done a bit more work as the Minister of State has asked of them.