Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Sometimes the lottery grants are very specific and organisations know that but other times the lottery grants from Minister's Department are subsumed into Government Estimates as in the case of social housing. One might see an Estimate for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with a figure for social housing and it would state, "which includes a portion funded by.....", but one would not know how much, for what or from where.

It is good that the regulator will not be able to amend the provisions governing the payment for good causes. I thought the regulator was to hand the money over to the Minister's Department and the Government decided on the payment for good causes. I do not know why that provision is included in the amendment. Prior to this amendment, had the regulator the ability to make changes regarding the payment for good causes? Could the regulator have amended this?

The Minister spoke about establishing regulators and in the past regulators were over-prescribed with Government policy. The Minister is proving his point here in that the regulator can do very little at this stage when all these provisions in terms of the regulator are included.

As the legislation is drafted, is there provision governing the payment of a good cause under the remit of the regulator? I thought that was the job of the Government.