Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I acknowledge the good spirit behind the Minister's comments, I am a little concerned by what he has just said. He has stated he is considering the options of what to do with the money now, quite a portion of which will not be required for a number of years. An escrow account to be managed by someone else has been mentioned. As for the sale proceeds from the national lottery, a significant portion of which everyone in Ireland understood clearly was for the national children's hospital, the Minister now has put on record he is considering whether other options exist, such as keeping the funds in an escrow account or using them in the interim and possibly substituting them with other funds. The Minister has broken what I consider to be the absolute link between the licence sale proceeds and the national children's Hospital. From the public's point of view, it is everyone's wish to help children, especially in the aftermath of the recent referendum. People were happy with that concept in that even if the national lottery essentially was to be privatised, at least it was being privatised for a good cause. However, the Minister no longer is as absolute about maintaining the link between the sale proceeds and actually using the direct funds. I acknowledge this is through no fault of the Minister, as because of the planning process and the new site, there now is a significant time-lag in respect of the project he had earmarked and which he probably thought would be somewhat more concurrent. This is a matter to which Members must revert.

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