President Michael D Higgins has called for an urgent debate about gambling advertisements on TV - labelling them a "scourge".
Earlier in July, the President met with people who have overcome addictions, including gambling, at a centre in Wicklow run by Tiglin charity.
An episode of RTE Prime Time on Thursday put the issue into focus once more.
And a statement from President Higgins on Saturday morning showed his continued support for an open discussion on the issue.
President Higgins said: “I welcome the fact that the debate on sports gambling advertising has now been taken up in the public discourse.
"Earlier this month, having met with people that have overcome addictions of various kinds, I spoke of the scourge of sports gambling and the dangerous gambling advertisements, which continue to cause so much damage to families and individuals.
"When I spoke at Tiglin, I suggested that nobody can accept that the tokenistic ‘small print’ warnings and invitations to be ‘responsible’ are in any way in proportion to the possible damage being inflicted by the lure of sports gambling ads.
"There are serious questions, ones that are surely in the public interest to have answered, as to how such a high degree of saturation of the media landscape by sports betting advertisements has arisen, when the evidence of the damage being inflicted is so obvious and should be a concern to us all.”
The Prime Time episode featured prominent interviews with former Tyrone GAA footballer Cathal McCarron and gambling giant Paddy Power co-founder Stewart Kenny who were both very honest about how they felt the industry has negatively impacted people's lives.
Speaking to the programme Kenny said Ireland was "so far behind in regulating the gambling industry that there is no protection for the young and vulnerable".
The former chief executive of Paddy Power said that "governments for the last 20 years have been totally negligent" when it comes to regulating the gambling industry.
Meanwhile McCarron said that when he was gambling heavily that he "never got a free bet until I lost. So if I was winning, I never got a free bet".
Viewers of the programme had huge praise for the two interviewees while also voicing their belief for a need regulate the online gambling industry more.
