asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware of the activities of several British agencies which issue advertisements and circulars through the post in Ireland seeking fees for forecasting winners of horse races and basing their advertisements upon alluring claims of past successful forecasting; whether he is satisfied that such claims are wholly warranted; whether the Gardaí have investigated complaints; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Forecasting of Horse Race Winners.
66.
I have, of course, no information whatsoever, nor could I have, as to whether such claims are warranted. Neither could the Garda Síochána undertake to investigate the matter. Such an investigation, even if it were justified in principle, would be impossible to carry out in practice, first of all because the persons concerned are living abroad and secondly because the nature of the claims makes it impossible to attempt to verify them by any merely retrospective check.
Is there not co-operation between the police authorities of this country and other countries? Would the Minister explain what difficulty there is in ascertaining whether or not these agencies did forecast the wins they subsequently boast about and, if they did not, will the Minister see to it that steps are taken to prevent the postal services being used for this purpose?
These are not the only agencies making alluring claims through the post.
No.
The Fine Gael Party made a few of them in the last election.
The Minister for Justice should be the last person to talk about fraudulent and alluring claims in relation to postal matters. Is it not a fact that in the Minister's Department there is a large quantity of advertising matter that has been brought to his attention? In view of the fact that the Garda have in fact made an investigation, would the Minister now state what steps will be taken to see that the postal services are not used for this purpose?
The matter is so utterly harmless that the Garda do not propose to investigate it further.
Is it the Minister's view that it is a perfectly harmless matter that several breadwinners are spending their hard-earned money because of these foolish and fraudulent attractions made by foreigners?
The Irish electorate were slightly more discerning.