These amendments are designed to preserve the existing law in Ireland. It is a law that is being deliberately breached day in, day out by powerful casino operators in this city. Under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, one cannot run an amusement hall unless a local authority has decided that either in the whole of or in part of its area there should be a regime in place that permits the operation of amusement halls. That means that in places such as Bundoran in County Donegal, Balbriggan in County Dublin and Bray …

First, I welcome the discussion on the amendments I have put forward. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, to the Chamber this evening. I further welcome what Senator Paul Gavan has said in particular as well as what other members have said in respect of the principle of this legislation and the amendments I have tabled. The Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 provided that a one-arm-bandit-casino-type operation could not be run unless the local authority in the area said so. It gave local authorities the…

It has not. I would put a lot of money on that it has not. Therefore, under Part III of the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, whatever happens in any part of Wexford, despite the abolition of the urban district councils and the like, is unlawful. What can a local authority do? The only people who can act in this matter are members of An Garda Síochána. They can prosecute. They can seize machines under this Act. There are extensive powers of seizure and they are not doing it for some reason. They have been bamboozled b…

I feel passionate about this.

The reason I feel passionate is I have been given answers as to why these amendments should not be accepted, which are that local authorities proved incapable of operating a system. Local authorities were never given the function of operating the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. They were never given that function. It was members of the Garda who were to police the Act. They were given-----

I accept that I strayed. Local authorities were never given the function under the Gaming and Lotteries Act of policing this. They could not send down some lad from the council head office to say there is something wrong here. The only people who were given a function to police this were the police. To lay blame at the feet of local authorities is wrong. The only function local authorities had was to say yea or nay, it can or cannot happen in all or part of our local authority area. They were given this one-off rig…

I want to mention the NUI graduates-----

The amendment deals with in-person gambling. That is different from what the Minister of State is now talking about, which is online gambling. This amendment is solely concerned with in-person gambling. He should get into his car, take a little drive around Dublin and look at how many of these places there are. They are mushrooming around the city. I fully accept that the Flutters of this world are probably much more concerned with online gambling and the big English and Irish gambling industries. The people with t…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 14, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (2) , the repeal of Part III of the Act of 1956 shall not take effect until Part 4 is brought into operation.”

I support the two amendments that were discussed. They are sensible. Nowadays there are very elaborate activities whereby a person is asked to answer some stupid question, which then turns into a lottery. RTÉ does a lot of it. That must be dealt with. It is a lottery, and gaining access to a lottery by answering a moronic question correctly does not change it from being a lottery. I support that.

Not agreed.

I intend moving amendment No. 70 in my name which is to remove a reference. I want to say a few words about this Bill. I fully recognise that the former Attorney General, Mr. Paul Gallagher SC, embarked on a massive task in seeking to consolidate planning law and to update it in the manner that this Bill provides. It was a project which he took personal interest in. It is impressive in its size but I have to say that I have come to the conclusion in looking at the Bill itself that this is not a step in the right di…

There are experts running around Dún Laoghaire trying to find bats and putting up microphones to see if they can hear bats in any part of Dún Laoghaire in order to object to planning applications and to foot-trip the planning process. There are people who have made money out of objections to planning developments in which they have no real legitimate interest. I accept that all of this needs to be addressed but I will finish on this point. I put down all these amendments and I will not keep speaking on them. They a…

I wish to mention two issues. Yesterday, I was chastened for not apparently understanding what section 58 actually provides for in the powers it gives councillors to propose variations of development plans. The point I was making - and a number of people contacted me to ask me to make this point - is that when one looks to sections 61 and 62, the OPR does have a very significant effective role of control and veto over such variations. My point, which Senator Moynihan has just made, is that there is a sense that the…

I know there are important bits in this Bill. I am referring to the whole Bill. I said yesterday, in the Minister's absence, that if those changes had been made separately, consolidation could have taken place on a different day but we are being asked to take a huge bundle of things together and some things we have to agree with and some we do not want to agree with. That is what I find difficult. If we want to do something about housing in the greater Dublin area, it is going to require not merely the Land Develop…

Hear, hear.

This legislation is being rushed through. It is wrong in principle to bring a Bill to Dáil Éireann to deal with adding new judges, tinkering with the firearms Act and so on and to then throw into it an entirely new provision on the revocation of citizenship. It is wrong in principle to attempt to do that. Whatever urgency there is in dealing with the Damache case, that urgency has existed since the decision was given and it could have been dealt with separately. The second thing is the provisions of the Bill are hi…

I note the Minister of State is stepping in in these circumstances. There are a few things I want to say about section 11 but I do not want to overly delay the House.

I just want to point out that section 11(1) provides that a declaration that something is or is not an unauthorised user is conclusive of the matter stated therein in proceedings brought by an enforcement authority only against the person who requested the relevant declaration. There are two exceptions to that. One is where that person knowingly misled the planning authority, or the commission, which is a renamed An Bord Pleanála, by misleading it that the misleading information would have meant that the declaratio…

I accept what my friends are saying. I do not want to delay proceedings or extend matters by calling for a walk through vote. We have to mark our disagreement with the section as it stands, however, and that must be done by means of a vote.