Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak to this Bill, which has a number of worrying aspects. To pick up on the contributions of previous speakers, why fix something that is not broken? I hope the Government will not use the old flogging horse of the children's hospital. Goodness knows, that project has been delayed for far too long and far too much money has been wasted on consultants and planners.

As the Acting Chairman knows from his county, a good pre-planning meeting with planners is recommended regardless of the size of the project. How in God's name and after so much time and money have been spent did we decide on a site that is out of kilter with what the parents want? I ask an honest question - who is codding whom? In the final analysis, the sick children and their parents are suffering. It is outrageous that so much money could be wasted on a vital project with nothing to show for it.

Unfortunately, this is a continuation of what occurred during the Celtic tiger years. So-called consultants and experts have built up a gravy train industry of codding people and relieving private citizens and, in this instance, taxpayers of their hard earned revenue in return for a ball of smoke.

The national lottery was set up in 1986 or 1988. I fully support it, but I seldom buy tickets for it. I have a small story to tell of how I realised how much of a catch it was. It was a wet, stormy Saturday evening and I was called out by Waterford County Council because a tree had fallen across a road. The Acting Chairman would be aware of the place. There was no hope of removing the tree. It was a major road near Clonmel. We were going okay, although traffic needed to be turned back and people were inconvenienced. Two old dears arrived in a Mini Minor at 7.50 p.m. When we explained to them that the road was closed and they did not have a hope of getting through, they were furious. I thought that they were going to mass or somewhere else, but they wanted to go to a shop to buy a ticket for the lotto before it closed. This is why I want the real impact of the lotto and why people are interested in playing it investigated. It is a form of gambling. People have issues with gambling. In the main, however, and taking Deputy Boyd Barrett's remarks on the common good and the amount of funding for projects, community groups and clubs in all of our constituencies, it must be supported and protected.

The lotto was set up in 1986, drawing on the success of similar projects in other countries. This is an important point. When legislation was brought before the Oireachtas, the then Minister of State, Mr. Jim O'Keeffe, stated: "The function of the lottery will be to generate surplus funds that will benefit our community in a number of ways, without the need for recourse to taxation or other compulsory revenue raising measures." We were just out of a recession at the time - it was a long time ago - but those words were no more appropriate than they are today. We have taken the recourse to taxation and introduced legislation as a result of the devastating crash in the economy, orders for this and that, pension levies and who knows what else.

We must be extremely careful lest we denigrate the good work done by people in the national lottery and An Post in handling the lotto. We had the surety of the costs that An Post would receive every year. We have closed the stable door after the horse has bolted too many times. Let us step back in these punitive and recessionary times and ensure that we do not give away another golden jewel or allow another group of consultants who were appointed to look into this matter for us to recommend separating agencies from the State. Maybe some of their friends worked for those agencies yesterday, last year or whenever or might work for them next year. This merry game has gone on for too long. We need to make haste slowly.

After prizes and expenses have been paid, surplus funds are to be used for sport and other recreational activities, national culture - including Gaeilge, sin go hiontach ar fad - the arts, the health of the community - an important project - and such other purposes and in such amounts as the Government may determine from time to time. This bit can be worrying, as we have all lobbied. As a backbencher, I lobbied the last Government for groups. That was what we were elected to do. I will not say too much about it. For "such other purposes", public notice must be given in Iris Oifigiúil. It covers youth, welfare, national heritage and amenities.

These areas embrace the entire range of society. We have seen the benefits that national lottery funding has brought to the arts. It has certainly brought benefits to sports and recreation. We all know clubs that do not have facilities. There are some sad cases. There is one in Clonmel, a boxing club with which I have been involved and that has not been successful. Many hundreds and thousands of clubs have state-of-the-art facilities and are of considerable social benefit to their communities. We must protect, enhance and support this aspect. We can never allow room for fat cats to get fatter. We must have surety of tenure. I see from the Bill that the licence will last for 20 years instead of ten. We must ensure that we do not make a mistake and that consultants do not bring in glossy reports to hoodwink officials and elected politicians, as they often seem capable of doing.

From the graph given to us, money for good causes amounted to €173 million in 2002. In other years, the amounts were €187 million and €191 million. As Deputy Boyd Barrett stated, more than €250 million was provided over a couple of years in the boom times. The provision was still standing strong at €243 million in 2010 and at €231.9 million in 2011. These are considerable amounts. They have given a lifeline to many a club, society and arts group in RAPID areas when RAPID funding was being cut. Projects were supported by the national lottery with funds that deprived areas would never have seen otherwise. They could not expect to get anything through philanthropy. They paid into the lotto and enjoyed having a flutter on it. There might have been some excessive cases, but people felt that the lotto money was a payback into their communities. While some studies have found that lower socio-economic groupings did not get as much as they should have, that the money was ploughed into community groups has been seen with a great degree of respect, understanding and appreciation.

I regularly salute the doers in communities. They are the enablers. We would have a far poorer country if we did not have club and social committee activists, entrepreneurs in social housing, sports committees, sports clubs and so on. Look at our playgrounds and everything else. These people are volunteers. We must be one of the best countries in this area. For this reason, we must not change the law and allow significant wages to be paid to the chief executives of boards. Another regulator with a framework is being set up. We cannot allow growth in this area or support to be pulled back from communities.

I was in London yesterday with a committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. We frankly and honestly discussed credit unions. I am convinced by my conclusion - British credit unions are not of the same ilk as ours. Ours are of the people, for the people and by the people. In England, there is a different attitude and credit unions are not as bottoms-up in structure. For that reason, this money is imperative if we are to allow the enablers to continue working on valuable projects across a range of areas from sport to health in their communities. Some years ago, there was a healthy community project in Ballingarry in my constituency.

It was a fabulous project. We can see what has been achieved. We can also see the transformations that have been achieved in association with the "John Murray Show". This work was being done and was funded and supported by the HSE in communities a decade or more ago. We must be careful in what we do. One could ask why one would draft legislation to introduce a change to allow a resource as valuable as the lottery to be eroded or undermined. It behoves all of us to take such a stand.

I will stray a little from the Bill if the Acting Chairman allows me. Challenges face the Waterford Leader Partnership and the two Tipperary Leader Partnership programmes. They are enablers. The system was set up by the Government and led the way with a bottom-up approach. Groups apply to them for money and they spend it willingly. Sometimes they got money in this area as well. We must challenge the attack on such partnership programmes because they know what is happening and they can deal with it. I disagree with the intention to hand over responsibility in this area to county councils. I was a member of a county council for ten years and I do not knock local authority officials. However, county councils are regulatory bodies. People see their role as levying rates, granting planning permission and controlling waste management, not as a front-line stimulator of community projects. The Minister and his officials are making a fundamental mistake in that regard. We must support and nurture those fledgling organisations. The one group that was doing such work was the enterprise boards and latterly the development companies. They have done tremendous work. The South Tipperary Development Company had considerable difficulties during its gestation period but we got over it. We have a fabulous CEO and great staff who give above and beyond the call of duty. One could ask why we would do anything to damage the good models that have been created.

To return to the Bill, the same is true of the national lottery. Perhaps the lottery needs fine-tuning but we do not need to give it to a company that would see it as a vehicle to improve its balance sheet. We do not need uncertainty on the cost of running such a project. Neither would we have to set up a regulator and team to conduct investigations. I accept regulations are required and penalties for wrongdoing. I salute the retailers of rural and urban Ireland who handle the sale of lottery tickets. We all have a chance to enjoy such entertainment as we had at the weekend in Tipperary when we thought Lar Corbett had become a multimillionaire. He had to deny it on Twitter. That could only happy in a small rural town or village where everyone knows everyone else and everyone knows what is going on and can see the benefits. It appears that Lar was not the winner so he will have to go back into training and play more games. I wish him well. I also congratulate him on his wedding.

While I accept that we must make some changes, we must make haste slowly. We must support and enhance the system. Whether one is in the heart of the city or the most rural part of the country, we must consider the benefits that have been achieved by community groups with the support of lottery funding. Much lottery funding has been wagered in communities where tickets have been bought. The lottery is a success story. Great satisfaction has resulted from it. Sports capital funding grants for this year are to be revisited again. They bring great succour and support to groups that are hard-pressed. We must return to the words of the then Minister of State, Jim O'Keeffe, when he set up the lottery because the words were never more appropriate than they are now: "The function of the lottery will be to generate surplus funds that will benefit our community in a number of ways without the need for recourse to taxation or other compulsory revenue-raising measures." That says it all. I rest my case.

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