I bring up the subject of the need for the Minister for Justice to issue guidelines to local authorities regarding the adoption and rescinding of resolutions regarding the licensing of amusement halls because in my area of Bray, for successive years, there has been a resolution before the council which has failed to ban the slot machines in Bray by a tied vote.
I believe there is need for ministerial instruction, inteference or tightening up of the rules because the gaming machines lobby is too strong. It is difficult for politicians at local level and at urban council level to stand up to the rather over-zealous lobbying of gaming machine owners who put too much pressure on them which they find very difficult to resist. I think the way they have behaved in Bray and in other areas is contemptible. They do it by a mixture of the carrot and the stick; by this I mean they use the stick if anybody criticises them.
I received a solicitor's letter recently from the Irish Amusement Trade Association for making vague criticisms of their activities and suggesting that slot machines should be removed and should no longer be allowed in Bray. I find it particularly reprehensible that criticism is immediately reacted to by threats to go to law. I also think it would be appropriate if this was made public. In the light of what is happening in the beef tribunal at the moment, the Irish Amusement Trade Association should also be required to make public their contributions to political parties and to individuals. That is something no one should be frightened of revealing, and they should be open about it but they are such a strong lobby that those contributions should also be open to the public. Until that is done I believe the Minister should intervene with either far stronger guidelines or slot machines, which are a reprehensible activity, should be abolished from Bray and other areas.
I say this because I believe they are a social evil and I have believed this for a long time, particularly because of a case that happened in this House which underlined the sort of misery that was going on in these arcades. I remember it well. I think it was before their abolition in Dublin in 1985 but it may have been after that that I went to a meeting in this House of a member of the staff who told Members of the Dáil and Seanad of the misery caused to him and his family by his addiction to these machines.
I would like to pay tribute here to Fr. Peter McVerry who did sterling work highlighting the appalling downfall of individuals as a result of their addiction to these machines. It was largely as a result of his work that they were banned in Dublin. Thankfully, a right decision was taken to ban them in Dublin because some people were addicted and because of the misery they caused; they were banned also because of illegal activities.
Unfortunately the effect of banning them in Dublin was to export a great deal of this problem to Bray in County Wicklow. As a result, Bray has become the urban centre of slot machine activity in the greater Dublin area and in County Wicklow. Unfortunately, this reflects badly on the town, has an adverse social effect on the town and has an adverse effect on the environment. It creates a bad image. Although it is bad for the image of the town, I do not think that is the principal reason. It is bad for the people who play them because of the effect on their families. The individual who called this meeting in the Oireachtas all those years ago told us about the misery suffered by his family, about the poverty inflicted on his family and the fact that he was involved with money lenders. He had to get into money lending——
