Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I set out at this stage my opposition to the Bill in its totality. Speaking on Second Stage, the Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, said "It is fair to say concerns have never been raised about the integrity, probity or ethos of our lottery". He also said: "The national lottery, an crannchur náisiúnta, has been one of Ireland's success stories of the past quarter of a century" and "During the past quarter of a century the Irish national lottery has come to be regarded as very innovative and successful". I view the legislation as a fundamental and radical change in the ethos of the national lottery. Some have expressed their opposition to the Bill by saying that the Minister is selling off the lottery.

I acknowledge he is not doing that but to all intents and purposes he is moving the lottery to a private, for profit model. I am against that and the comments he made when we discussed this legislation previously regarding the merits of the current system and, indeed, the success of the lottery as it currently exists, raise the obvious question of why is he trying to fix it if it is not broken. Many areas of our system of public administration require radical change but the national lottery is not one of them. In moving this amendment I state my fundamental objection to the shift he is proposing to make. I do not believe it will be in the public interest in the long term.