Mr. Frank Flannery:

This was worked out approximately 18 years ago and all of the political parties were very much involved. Arrangements were made between the charity lottery sector and the State to allow the national lottery to develop along the lines it has and the charity lotteries to be compensated in a realistic way for agreeing to it. Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party were in government for much of the time, followed by the rainbow coalition made up of the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Democratic Left. Every party was fully involved and it was 100% agreed to. It lasted to the satisfaction of all parties until very recently when it was concluded without any discussion or warning in quite a remarkable way, to use the kindest language I can come up with. As a result, the charity sector faces being squeezed out almost entirely of the sector of which it was one of the great developers in the 1940s and 1950s and much of what has been done since was built on this work. We find this very hard to take. If the compensation mechanism which was agreed to by all political parties and operated so satisfactorily for so long will be removed in this way, the provisions for prize caps in the legislation must also go because this was the arrangement which was in place. We will agree with the price caps to allow the Government to develop what it wants, provided this is done. This was a business arrangement agreed to on all sides. I am not saying it was a legal arrangement, but it was a business arrangement with which everyone acquiesced and we do not want it to be pulled away without discussion or comment.