Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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388. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his reason for not holding, as is the practice in other countries, a national gambling impact study as recommended by the Public Health Institute; his views on whether there is an increase in the number of persons presenting with gambling addiction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29047/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that my Department has been developing a General Scheme of a Bill that sets out my proposals on the updating of our laws on gambling. I hope to secure the Government's approval for my proposals in the near future.

Under current law, regulation is, in general, sector specific, with a number of State agencies performing functions in relation to the sector in question. My Department's Scheme will replace those current systems with the result that, for the first time, all regulatory, licensing and enforcement functions will come under a single agency, namely the Minister for Justice and Equality. I would expect that the reorganisation of responsibilities now being proposed should overcome problems that may have in the past made it more difficult to undertake initiatives to, for example, measure on a national basis the scale and impact of gambling across different sectors.

The Scheme will also provide for the creation of a statutory Fund. The Fund will be based on contributions by the industry. Its purpose is to support research, education and awareness as well as treatment programmes for persons who have acquired a harmful gambling habit or addiction. The Fund will be managed independently.

I can tell the Deputy that, pending the enactment and coming into operation of the new legislation, my Department is actively looking at ways to collect data that is current and reliable and that can be used for the developments of policies to address gambling difficulties.

My Department does not have access to information that would support, or otherwise, suggestions of an increase in the numbers of persons presenting with addiction problems. I am not, therefore, in a position to comment on the matter other than to say that information on not only numbers, but other factors such as age and gender could assist in targeting our policies. The scarcity of information on this and on other impacts of gambling underlines the need for measures such as the Fund I referred to above.