From the Minister of State's contribution, he clearly does not want to try to reach agreement on how to fix this. I thought I was being fair enough with my comments because I think we can fix this, and I said I did not believe it was his intention, but maybe I have a different view of it now. I have told him there are companies driving a coach and horses through this already. I know schools are included; it is called the "gaming definition". How has the Government defined "gaming"? It is defined, on page 17, as "wh…

Hang on a second-----

Hold on a second. If the Government wants to support the sector, clubs will not be able to do that unless they advertise their car. That is just a fact. A GAA club or a community development association that is raffling a house will not be able to do that unless it is able to advertise, but companies such as McKinney Motors - I could name numerous ones - will be able to continue to raffle those houses because they have these types of exemptions. That is a problem. Does the Minister of State want to fix the legislat…

Do we want to fix this or not? Fianna Fáil's legislation is going to crucify these groups and charities.

Where?

And it is outdated.

The Government is creating a law that people are going to break.

I strongly support these amendments regarding the lived experience and to make sure the authority does not become captured by those in the industry. The industry is broad because we are not only dealing with the commercial, as it goes far beyond that. This goes to the heart of Sinn Féin's approach to this issue. There is a major problem with gambling in this State and the availability of smartphones and apps has increased that. I say that as somebody who is involved in a company that has a lottery licence, as do ma…

The amendments, as the Minister of State said, are technical and deal with the staffing of the authority. The previous amendments from my colleagues also looked at staffing of the authority. It is a positive part of the legislation that we have an authority that will regulate gambling in the State, which we did not have until now. There will be much responsibility on the staff and those carrying out these functions. These amendments deal with superannuation. I do not see any problem with them. However, there is a s…

We will come to the levy in Deputy Gould's next amendment but I have not heard a convincing argument as to why they do not come under freedom of information. We know that a lot of freedom of information requests do not work anyway. We wait months to get to get answers and on many occasions we get an answer back that it is considered commercially sensitive or so on. A lot of this would not be subject to freedom of information - the basis on which the levy is calculated. I understand that but what would be subject to…

The first number of these amendments are just technical because the Minister of State is deleting section 67. Amendment No. 34 is more substantive because it gets rid of section 67, on persons advertising relevant gambling activity, in its entirety. The section is being replaced by other sections through a number of amendments. The amendments are a great improvement on what we have now, and I welcome that. I will address the detail of the amendments when we come to them. I am concerned about the definitions. What w…

We need clarity in this regard. We will discuss social media advertising later. The section refers to advertisement and targeted advertisement. Will the Minister of State clarify, using the definition that he has now used for “advertise”, which was dealt with on amendment No. 1, whether a post that is not sponsored paid advertisement will be deemed as advertisement? The section that refers to social media advertisement makes it clear that someone cannot enter into an arrangement with a social media company unless t…

These amendments are grouped so I am trying to look at the impact of all of them. Let us look at amendment No. 65. I am doing this on the hoof, so apologies. Amendment No. 65 seeks to delete "game, betting activity or lottery" and substitute "game or lottery". That is being proposed for the purposes that the Minister of State has just outlined. Why would we want charities involved in betting, other than race nights? Deputy Gould's point is worthy of clarification in terms of pool betting. Section 65 refers to the t…

I hear what the Minister of State is saying. Obviously, the Attorney General has his own team working on this. However, I think it is really problematic. We have bets, games and lotteries. That is what gambling is and to have no definition of "betting" is really problematic in legislation that will be the stand-alone and signature piece of legislation for us in this area. I make the point that we are on Report and Final Stages of this legislation which has been on the road for an unbelievably long time. The vast ma…

The charity or philanthropic body would be delighted to get €10,000 but under the legislation, one third of it has to go to the charity, which is about €13,500. There is a problem with that part of the legislation.

There are grouped amendments. The one Deputy Ó Ríordáin referenced was amendment No. 82.

Yes, but you also referenced amendment No. 82 in terms of the prohibition of certain hours.

I am not sure exactly where the Deputy is at in terms of advertising for community groups and so on. We now know that the definition of advertisement is not paid advertisement but that a social media post would also be deemed as advertisement. My view is that we should not be having commercial advertising in terms of gambling. I agree with the Deputy on that. It should be curtailed. That is my view. I recognise this legislation takes a step forward. I would like to hear from the Minister of State on the definition …

Before I begin, I will say that my thoughts and those of the party are with the families of those who lost their lives in the Stardust fire. As we all know, they have waited four decades for answers as to what happened to their loved ones at that time. They have faced many obstacles, including those put in their way by this State. I hope the families involved will get the answers they have waited for today. I extend to them my solidarity and the solidarity of everyone in Sinn Féin on this momentous day. Tá an córas…

If somebody was doing a four-year law degree and it ended up taking him or her six years or more, it would be unacceptable. If we told our teachers that their four-year course was now to last six or six and a half years, it would be unacceptable. Why is it acceptable for plumbers? Why is it acceptable for plasterers, brickies and carpenters? That is what is happening under the Government. It cannot get away from the figures. The Tánaiste talked about October. In October, 5,514 people were waiting for off-the-job tr…