Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I do not want to blame the Minister for creating this situation. In fact, there is an opportunity for him to show leadership on the matter which he has not shown to date. Given the Minister's response, the issue is one of storage, not of usage. With 40% of the machines being stored by the private sector, what guidelines or indications did he give to the returning officers with regard to storage?

I will quote two figures on which I would like an opinion. For a 25 year contract, Cavan-Monaghan is charging €21,000 per year for 280 machines, whereas County Clare, on a monthly basis, is charging €3,600 a year for 200 machines. A 25 year contract in Cavan-Monaghan is costing eight times as much per annum as a monthly contract in another part of the country. How did we arrive at such a differential in storage costs? The Minister should give some guidelines in this regard.

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