John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Bill. Since the national lottery's establishment in 1986 it has provided €12 billion for good causes throughout the country. It has changed the face of the voluntary sector through the funding of such an array of deserving causes. There is not a town or village one passes through where one does not see the beneficial effects of the national lottery and that is to be welcomed. It has been fantastic. An Post has done a wonderful job in overseeing the national lottery for the past number of years. Given the precarious nature of its financial situation, it would be hoping to retain the lottery licence. I would have a concern about the implications of the possible loss of the licence to An Post for services that the lottery benefited throughout the country in terms of the closing of small retail outlets or post offices.

A total of €231 million was provided to good causes in 2011, the last year for which we have figures. That figure demonstrates the benefits of the national lottery. A grant of €100,000 was awarded to the cystic fibrosis organisation in my constituency which is being used to provide for cystic fibrosis facilities at Mayo General Hospital. This will help people with the condition in that they will have the facilities they deserve and need and they will have them sooner than if the national lottery was not in place. That provision of those facilities would have taken another two or three years to complete were it not for the grant the organisation was given, which I welcome. The same is the case throughout the country.

I welcome the discussion on this Bill. I also welcome that the development of the national children's hospital, which we all want and the country badly needs, will be facilitated through this measure but I hope that will not impact on the money that will be available to other good causes as many of them are also important health facilities.

Deputy Mitchell spoke about the public being able to buy lotto tickets on the Internet. This is common practice in other countries but I would be slightly worried about this development for a different reason from that mentioned by the Deputy. The explanatory memorandum states: "The playing of lottery games on the internet is seen as the most likely area of growth for lottery sales in the future." As we all know, there is a short jump between buying a lotto ticket online and developing a habit of gambling online. As a society, we are seeing the devastating effect of gambling on families and the accessibility of online gambling sites is simply too much of a temptation for some people. In saying that, I do not want to be a spoilsport. The retail outlets, shops, supermarkets and the post offices very much depend on this business as well. I hope the projected growth in Internet sales would not be at the cost of the outlets that depend on these sales for their business. We need to be careful about how we approach this. Do we want to be seen to be actively encouraging the buying of tickets online? If one buys a ticket over the counter the old fashioned way, at least there is more scrutiny and it is easier to scrutinise the age of people buying tickets. I hope there would be strict regulations, structuring and warnings given to people who go online and tend to stay online using their credit cards to chase that big win. We do not want to solve one problem and create another.

Another area that needs to be examined is the proportion of the revenue that will go to good causes. I note that figure is not included in the Bill. I understand that proportion of the revenue will not be ring-fenced and I would be a little concerned about that. I also note that the provision of a sales margin of 6% for shopkeepers, post offices and so on will not be included in the legislation. Are we going to see a situation where a company gets the licence and then dramatically cuts the commission to a retail trade that is already suffering and on the edge?

In general, the Bill is to be welcomed but there are some little warning signs that need to be looked at and teased out. We must ensure that there will be funding for good causes, that it will be ring-fenced and that there will be a network throughout the country, in shops and so forth, where the national lottery will be available. We must also look carefully at the growth in online sales so that we do not solve one problem and cause another by taking in enormous profits but causing massive problems in terms of addiction to gambling.

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