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

It would be a good thing. However, the Minister is opening a dangerous door. Before a prize cheque is handed out to the winner, the Revenue may require a winner to produce a tax clearance certificate. It is not the Minister's intention but it is amazing once such provisions are inserted in a Bill how they can be interpreted. The operator may not wish to hand out a cheque before the Revenue Commissioners have been in contact. This could be a possible result. The Revenue is very good at collecting tax. It is well able to collect any tax owing without the help of the operator. I make the same point with regard to the Department of Social Protection. If a person on a means-tested payment wins a lottery prize, the prize is not taxed but by definition he or she will lose the social welfare payment. We all understand that this is the law. I advise the Minister to be careful because some social welfare recipients win only modest prizes. The intentions are good but there is a touch of Big Brother about some of the provisions. Most prize winners have their pictures in the newspapers so the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners have other ways of contacting those people without the need to use the offices of the operator. It is current protocol but it may need to be stitched into this Bill to provide for the Department of Social Protection that only specified staff from the Department or the Revenue Commissioners would have access to personal files of people winning lottery prizes.

My key issue is that I do not think it would damage the legislation to include some mechanism to ensure some funding would be directed to the national children's hospital. The whole country would applaud the Minister if he did so. The people would be very pleased if he closed the gap.

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