Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

It is not related to the privatisation of the lottery; it relates to the establishment of the regulator. The regulator took on staff from the public service who had already earned pension entitlements. Effectively, because they came into the organisation with an entitlement to future pensions arising from their previous service, the question was who was going to pay. Was it going to be the regulator and the national lottery fund or was the public service, that is, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or Department of Finance, going to pick up the tab? That was really where the question lay. The regulator has not been providing or, if you like, taking on the liability for periods prior to their establishment. It was, therefore, really a question of who was going to take responsibility for it. I have drawn attention to it for a number of years because it has been dragging on since at least 2015 when a proposal was put to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I am glad to see that it is now moving towards a resolution.