Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleague, Senator O’Reilly, whose points were on the money. I agree about the importance of what is being achieved with this Bill. It is long overdue, so I commend the Minister of State on bringing it this far.

We essentially have a gambling regulator in place now. I would not be overly prescriptive in the legislation and would instead try to allow the regulator to find her feet and identify and procure best practice. Following feedback from the regulator, a future Oireachtas can introduce further amendments if necessary. This is a new approach, one that is critical and should have been done a long ago. There is merit and logic in some of the concerns being raised about the Bill being overly prescriptive, so I ask the Minister of State to review those concerns with an open mind and to give the regulator broad discretionary powers. I fear repeating myself, but I will articulate the point about further legislation again. I suspect it will be needed, given that we regularly deal with amendments to amendments and there are always unintended consequences. Our job is to try to prevent such consequences. The Minister of State is very much of that mindset as well. I commend him and his officials on what is groundbreaking and important legislation.