Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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92. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the steps his Department is taking to tackle the ever increasing problem of gambling in this country. [6165/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Government approved the General Scheme of the Gambling Control Bill in July 2013. This Bill will, upon enactment, replace all extant laws on gambling (with the exception of that governing the National Lottery). The Scheme is with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel awaiting formal drafting, and is available on my Department's website. As per the current Legislative Programme, it is not yet possible to indicate when the Bill is likely to be published.

The new legislation will have consumer protection generally as one of its core principles, and it is envisaged that it will include several measures aimed at assisting and protecting vulnerable persons, the young and those for whom gambling has become a problem.

It is proposed, in Part 7 of the Scheme, to establish a Fund to aid research, education and awareness activities and to support treatment programmes. The Fund will be based on contributions from the industry but the proposals will ensure independent supervision of the disbursement of monies collected.

As I have already stated, there is a scarcity of information on the scale and impacts of gambling. This underlines the need for measures such as the Fund I referred to above.