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

Before the Minister concludes he might state whether he will address this point in some way on Committee Stage. I am not going to tie his hands in regard to how the fund is managed. We could have a debate on the nitty gritty of the funding and whether it is to be locked up in a certain account, or whatever. We will have constructive suggestions on that. We are just not sure about the legislation without such a commitment. That is all I have to say. In regard to public support it would not do the Minister any harm to have this commitment in the legislation. It would strengthen his position in getting the public to accept it.

I refer to the timescale. We realise there may still be planning issues because the site is in a city centre location. There was a report in the newspapers of a squabble between the HSE and St. James's Hospital, although I do not know what it was about. However, I am not surprised. Children come last when it comes to such issues. I believe there is an issue about the board of the national pediatric hospital project committee. I am not sure of its membership but hope the problem can be sorted out in the period ahead.

A suggestion comes to mind. If the Government gets the money up-front and was in a position to hold onto it there is another way of dealing with it. I have been thinking about it in recent days. Instead of getting all the money up-front in 2013, the Government may be able to get a greater amount if the operator chosen were to pay instalments over five years. The money would be received in 2015, 2016 and 2017, as required, but no other Minister could lay hands on it in the meantime to run off and build a hospital in some constituency or other. We will not go there. In that way, the Minister could ensure that the proceeds from the sale of this licence would come in closer to the time when they would be needed.

Some more money might actually be collected because the operator of the national lottery would have the use of, for example, an extra €100 million per annum for a prescribed period and that could be factored into the tendering process. I appreciate the upfront nature of the Minister's approach. That would have been good if we were building the national children's hospital this year or next year. However, circumstances have changed and perhaps there is also a need to alter the timing in respect of the proceeds in order to more closely reflect the nature of those circumstances.

The Minister cannot put a figure on the amount that will accrue from the sale of the licence but there is nothing to prevent me from doing so. If €600 million is obtained, then I would like perhaps half or some other proportion of it to be made available for the building of the national children's hospital when the time comes. We are all aware of the tight economic situation in which we currently find ourselves. Setting aside a proportion of the proceeds for the national children's hospital would be a welcome development. I wish to give full credit to Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell for a suggestion she has put forward to the effect that the proceeds of the Wednesday night draw could be specifically ring-fenced for this purpose. If such a proposal were to move forward,,and it could be factored into the tendering process, everyone would be aware that the proceeds of the draw in question would go into a separate fund for the national children's hospital. For the next four to five years, for example, a portion of the gross or net proceeds of the Wednesday night draw could be put aside in respect of the project to build the national children's hospital. Senator O'Donnell's suggestion would be another way of attracting funds to match the required investment over a period of a few years.

I consider what is being done here to be the sale of a State asset. I accept that the licence is a piece of paper but it is also a State asset. The Minister has made great play of his achievement in ensuring, during negotiations with the troika, that 50% of the sale of State assets will be used for job creation purposes.

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