Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with Deputy Ó Laoghaire in that the sale of the national lottery was a mistake. That it is owned by a Canadian pension fund demonstrates the difficulty. My issue is not with what has been specifically submitted through these amendments. As mentioned, €16 million that was inherited by the private operator from An Post was meant to go into the public fund for charitable causes but is instead being used by the private operator to promote itself. It is also claiming unclaimed prizes in order to promote itself.

I take the point made regarding turnover, but I do not have much sympathy for either of the amendments. Would the Minister accept an amendment to mandate the operator to ring-fence unclaimed prizes for public causes? Neither the regulator nor the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, are dealing with it and this might be an opportunity to do so. It seems that nobody is willing to provide better oversight. There are millions of euro at stake which could be allocated to good causes but are being hoovered up by the operator because of the ambiguity of our current legislative position. I raise this issue now because we need to deal with the fact that the operator inherited €16 million of public money and is able to use it to promote itself, which is shocking. This is a good opportunity to deal with it.