Last night on "Claire Byrne Live", Irish entertainer and comedian, Rory O'Connor, spoke openly and candidly about his challenges with gambling and its impact on his life and family. An hour earlier, on BBC One, the famous soccer pundit and ex-Arsenal footballer, Paul Merson, had a special show detailing his lifelong battle with gambling and how he has lost £7 million to gambling. He was left penniless and living in rented accommodation, never mind the impact on his mental health.

Over the last year, I have spoken extensively in this Chamber about the scourge of the gambling sector in this country. I was glad to hear the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, announce in his budget speech that funding is being made available for the establishment of the gambling regulatory authority. However, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, in his speech announced a tax relief credit for the digital gaming sector at the rate of 32% of expenditure up to €25 million on the design, production and testing of a game. This is a wide encompassing sector, primarily focused on children and teenagers in the area of gaming. In recent years, the gambling industry has sought to rebrand its online gambling casino products under the name "gaming". This includes digital technology adopted from the gaming industry. I am asking that in the Finance Bill, where this is to be fleshed out, we make clear that products developed by these independent companies for the big gambling companies, which are billion euro enterprises, do not qualify for this particular relief. It was explained on "Claire Byrne Live" last night that these companies have analytic technicians who detail the cookies of addicts so that they are then able to further fuel their addiction. They create case studies on these people. They know through their analytics that these people are addicts and they keep fuelling that addiction with these products. What an irony it would be if we were to afford them a tax credit to allow them to further enhance their research to keep people addicted to this drug. I am aware of the area at which this is primarily focused, but I would hope that the Finance Bill can be strengthened to make sure that no company developing products for the gambling industry can qualify for this relief.

I am seeking clarity on when the legislation for the regulation of e-scooters is to be introduced. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, announced that it would be introduced in the autumn of this year, but it is important to have that clarified as soon as possible. In most European countries, there is a lack of regulation of e-scooters and active travel and as a result this area has become a bit like the wild west, with companies setting up in capital cities and doing whatever they want in terms of bringing in e-scooters. I am an advocate of active travel and e-scooters. It is important we get the legislation right in Ireland to ensure there is a positive view of e-scooter use in this country. I attended the United Nations pre-conference on climate action in Rome, which is one of the cities in which there is no regulation of e-scooters and as a result there are e-scooters parked anywhere and everywhere on the streets, which causes a real issue for people with disabilities and people with visual impairment. It is a form of litter as well in that one is constantly dodging obstacles on the footpaths. We have to change people's mindset in regard to transport and to convince them that active travel is better than the car. For active travel to work, the system has to be as flawless as possible. We can ensure that it is flawless by providing in legislation that the tender process must make clear to e-scooter providers coming into this country that e-scooters can be parked only in designated areas, similar to Dublin Bikes. We must provide in law for designated parking for e-scooters and, also, that they must be well maintained, properly parked and not present any obstacles on our footpaths.