Senator Mark Wall: I thank my Labour Party colleagues for agreeing to this Private Members' business. I also thank the Leader for facilitating this debate, given the changes over the past two weeks. It is very much appreciated. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, to the House. I put on record once again my thanks to him for his leadership and commitment on this public health issue in bringing forward long overdue legislation in this area, which we look forward to debating in the coming weeks. However, tonight I have tabled our Bill, the Gambling (Prohibition of Advertising) Bill 2021. I sincerely hope that the Minister of State can support it and its quickest possible passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Labour Party Bill is attempting to break the continuing attempts of gambling companies to normalise sport and gambling. These companies have quite successfully associated the need to gamble, not just in mainstream sports, but in practically every sporting event that takes place. However, this is not just confined to sporting events, as we all know. We would like to see people being able to go back to enjoying sport without having a tsunami of gambling advertisements coming at them through visual and print media before, during and after these events.

Gambling companies portray gambling as a great social outlet that people are simply missing out on if they are not having a bet on the sporting occasion that they are watching. You are not being part of the gang if you are not having a bet. The reality, of course, as many who have developed an addiction will say, is betting on their phone alone, without the knowledge of their loved ones or those friends the gambling companies portray in their advertisements. At the moment, there is no watershed on gambling advertising in Ireland. During the pandemic, we have heard so many stories of parents having to explain to children as young as six and seven, who they were homeschooling at the time, what gambling was all about. No child as young as this should be exposed to such advertising. It is simply not good enough.

One of the most frightening findings of a recent Health Research Board, HRB, report, was that 20% of young men aged 15 to 24 who have gambled in the past year are either problem gamblers or are at risk of developing an addiction. The report’s authors state that they may have underestimated this group. The same report identified 12,000 people in the country with a severe addiction and more than 130,000 who are at some of risk of developing a problem. Other reports suggest that 40,000 people in this country have an addiction. That, of course, is one of the problems, as I am sure the Minister of State is aware. The lack of comprehensive reporting on this problem is an issue that needs to be addressed. We have for too long relied on comparing research and reports from the UK and from the rest of the world in trying to estimate the problem here and where we might offer our supports.

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