An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2021-07-13
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Rónán Mullen (IND), National University of Ireland

Gabhaim buíochas mór leis an gCathaoirleach. There are two Bills on the Seanad Order Paper on the problem of gambling. One is Senator Wall’s Bill which would ban broadcast and non-broadcast advertising and then there is Senator Ward’s Bill which would ban betting on the national lottery. Both of those are very welcome. It was a happy coincidence that President Higgins took the unusual step at the weekend of issuing a statement reiterating his comments at the Tiglin facility at the end of June, in time for Senator Wall’s Commencement matter, as it were.
Normally I would prefer that the President would be seen to defer verbally to the role of the Legislature on such matters but what he said was important. He talked about the saturation of the media landscape with sports betting advertising and he warned against and criticised the tokenistic small print warnings and invitations to be responsible. He is completely right in that regard.
There are aspects of Senator Wall’s Bill with which I might not fully agree. I would be concerned if the likes of the Racing Post would be able to continue to carry gambling advertising and I might allow a carve-out there. However, I am not sure if I would allow such a carve-out for the sponsorship by gambling organisations of sporting events.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-07-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-07-13