Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----have to be vetted? How practicable is that? Has consideration been given to how that gambling exclusion register will operate? It is a helpful element, particularly in the context of the potential pitfalls that come with online gambling and placing the obligation on those providing the services to have that in place. It is a very important element but I wonder how functional it is and whether much thought has been applied to that particular consideration.

There is a provision in section 72 of the Bill which essentially makes it legal to cheat at gambling. I know the house always wins and there are obviously people out there who will seek to undo that in a nefarious way. The way the offence is described - it is fairly detailed - and the provision that is made for it, with a penalty of up to five years on indictment, seem to reflect very substantially section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, which creates an offence of making a gain or causing a loss by deception. The two are analogous. I wonder if there is a concern that although section 72 makes perfect sense in isolation, it duplicates existing criminal statutes and, therefore, simply will not be used. It may be that the section is unnecessary. Was that considered in the drafting of the Bill? Part 4 sets out a number of offences that would exist in terms of actions by people involved in providing gambling services.

Section 71 prohibits the transfer of licences and other things in certain circumstances. I do not have a problem with that but it does not seem to make any provision for penalties relating to an offence or a contravention of section 71 which potentially would render the section itself, important as it is, absolutely toothless and useless in that regard.

I am not trying to pick holes. On the whole, this is greatly important legislation, as I have said. It is very difficult to regulate a huge industry that not only is worth multiples of millions of euro to people throughout this country, but also takes many different forms, whether it be gambling on sports, games of chance or whatever, or the important provision for local sports clubs, local clubs and organisations to fundraise through their members and communities. There is a difficult balance to be struck in that regard. Putting together legislation such as this takes an enormous amount of work and I want to acknowledge the work that has been done by the Minister of State's officials in that regard. Conscious of the fact that there may be identified unintended consequences in the Bill that will be addressed at later Stages, I wonder if the Minister of State will also give consideration to the issues I have raised and whether we can, perhaps, improve the Bill in addition to what the Minister of State has said.As I said, I am very happy, on behalf of the Fine Gael group, to welcome this legislation. I also welcome what it seeks to do and what it will actually do. I commend it to the House. I look forward to the amendments the Minister of State and others will bring forward on Committee Stage.