Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To be very honest about it, I have changed the conditions of the licence. I made it a 20-year licence to make it more attractive and to attract a larger up-front payment. The Deputy is right that what we are putting into the market is a licence which we are obliged under European law to put into the market. I cannot award it to An Post or to anybody else. The reason An Post has it is that it won the tender. If we were having this debate in advance of its winning the tender in 2001, it would be exactly the same debate. That is the way the licence is structured. We would have to have an opening tendering mechanism. As I indicated, Swiss Lotto was one of the organisations shortlisted on the last occasion, but it did not win the contract, which was won by An Post. I do not know who will win the licence and I have deliberately kept a mile away from the process of tendering. I have established a series of protocols, which are available on the Department's website, to show that. I should not be expressing any preference but I would not be displeased - I hope it is in order to say this - if An Post won this one as well. It may well tender for this licence as part of a consortium.