Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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This is related. The national lottery is now controlled and owned by a Canadian pension fund. Will the Minister of State accept an amendment on Report Stage to ring-fence the unclaimed prizes, which are used for marketing purposes at present, so they go back to public or charitable projects? Will he agree to this amendment? Some of these amendments are about the national lottery wanting to stave off competition from other operators and I am not that bothered by this. I am bothered by the fact the national lottery uses unclaimed prizes to promote itself rather than the money being used for the purposes of charities or proper projects. It is a public issue with regard to the drafting of the Act. Is the Minister of State open to changing this so any unclaimed prize would have to be pooled towards charitable projects or go back to the State rather than being used by the private pension fund to promote its own activity? There is huge public concern about this. Huge amounts of money are being kept by the lottery operator and not going to this particular purpose. It is a separate argument but it relates to lotteries.