Amendment No. 263 seeks to insert a new section in the Bill that would place an obligation on licensees to safeguard their participants from excessive and compulsive gambling. We have mentioned on a number of occasions during the debate the fact that there exists a bit of an imbalance in the Bill with respect to the safeguarding of at-risk participants, with the responsibility for keeping participants safe being primarily placed on the participants as opposed to the licensee. This amendment tries to address this im…

Picking up on other Senators’ comments throughout the day, it is important to say there is stuff that does not make sense to me. Senator McGahon talked about pushing people into the black market of gambling. I would like to know what that black market is, how big it is and what it is because I am telling him now that I am surrounded by gamblers, by people who gamble in a healthy way and in an unhealthy way. If it is poker in someone's house that they are organising, that stuff happens, but there is not some big bla…

Section 57 sets out the eligibility criteria for an individual to become a member of a relevant office or an adjudication officer. Our amendment No. 105 seeks to expand on the provision that states that an individual who enters employment with a licensee or an organisation that represents a licensee is ineligible for appointment. The amendment would make explicit that an individual who enters employment with an organisation that represents the interests of licensees generally, as opposed to the interests of an indi…

I will not move it.

Amendments Nos. 127 and 338 are related so I will discuss them together. Amendment No. 338 changes Schedule 2, which relates to maximum relevant payments and winnings for games and lotteries. The Bill contains boring proposals setting the maximum relevant payment for a relevant game at €10. Slot machines and other types of high-speed electronic gaming machines are proven to be by far the most addictive and harmful forms of gambling. They are created to be addictive and it is embedded in their design. At the relevan…

I am right in saying amendment No. 31 is in this group, yes?

Amendment No. 31 seeks to insert a reference to personal gaming devices in the list of what constitutes remote means. In the previous section of the debate, we discussed physical spaces, yet when we look at the online space, we are not fully doing what we need to do in that space either. For the purposes of this Bill as drafted, the Bill specifies that gambling by remote means can include using the Internet, a telephone or a television. The amendment seeks to expand on this provision with the explicit inclusion of …

I raise the point of gaming and in-app purchases. Obviously, I am speaking from a place of not fully understanding where app development can go but surely the Internet can be used to download a particular app, after which the app is on a person's phone or PlayStation. Sometimes apps can be potentially accessed, and that is a secondary point as some apps can be accessed without any Internet. The app itself needs the Internet but anything within that going forward may not need the Internet. We need to be able to futu…

I move amendment No. 31: In page 21, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following: “(b) a personal gaming device or console,”.

Hear, hear.

I send my congratulations and well wishes to the Irish Homeless Street Leagues teams who are playing in the Homeless World Cup in Seoul, South Korea. As athletes, they do not get enough attention when they go off around the world each year to play in the Homeless World Cup. The team changes every year and includes people experiencing homelessness, addiction, social isolation and many different issues. Their starting point in athletics is being able to engage in the sport but there is a complex set of needs wrapped …

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I move amendment No. 139: In page 104, between line 22 and 23, to insert the following: “(3) The Department shall produce a report on the viability of the provision of independent legal and technical advice to elected members of the planning authority to assist them in their role in creating and reviewing the development plan.”.

I move amendment No. 140: In page 104, lines 32 and 33, to delete “10 years” and substitute “6 years”.

I move amendment No. 155: In page 108, between lines 38 and 39, to insert the following: (d) the provision, or facilitation of the provision, of cultural, social and recreational facilities including, but not limited to, arts centres, community centres, libraries, public spaces, public sports facilities, music and event venues, playgrounds and parks,”. This Bill represents a grey and banal vision of what life will be in our future. There is little in it that protects and promotes the provision of the type of infras…

We have some concerns with the content of the legislation as well as the way in which the legislation has come before us today. We propose to delete Part 3. As a member of the justice committee, I know that when a waiver of pre-legislative scrutiny is requested of the committee, much discussion takes place on the merits of waiving pre-legislative scrutiny, as well as on whether something needs further scrutiny. Before this request was made in respect of the Bill, I dissented, as I nearly always do in relation to wa…

I move amendment No. 11: In page 20, line 35, to delete “any” and substitute “a”. This is a simple amendment that seeks to address the concerns we have in regard to the insertion of section 68KG and section 68KH into the principal Act. Section 68KG allows for recipients of jobseeker’s pay-related benefit to be cut or even for them to be disqualified if they fail to attend meetings organised by the Minister and notified to them. It requires them to submit an assessment of their education, training and development ne…