Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed and it is a lot more volatile. I welcome the provisions in the legislation to create a regulator for a new national lottery but I have some concerns, nevertheless. The idea of creating yet another regulator is somewhat problematic. We have regulators for communications and energy as well as various other independent regulatory authorities, and I agree that they should be independent. However, if we are going to create a regulator for the national lottery, could we not incorporate the entire gambling industry? Could we not have a regulator for the various gambling companies, particularly in the context of fast-moving technologies that are affecting the lives of many people in this country? There are many aspects of the gambling industry as a whole that are of concern, particularly in times like these when people are finding it very hard to make ends meet.

One of these concerns reflects on the national lottery where we know the odds and we have an idea what we are gambling with. Bookies, similarly, give prices. There are some areas of gambling that we do not scrutinise. Radio and television programmes, for example, often ask up to 50,000 viewers to enter a competition by calling a premium rate telephone line for a prize that may be worth less than €500 or €1,000. These competitions give one no idea how close one might be to winning a prize. That should be looked at. We need to see more transparency in these transactions. I would like to see these competitions giving some information as to the chances players have when they make a premium rate telephone call and whether they have a 10% or a 0.1% chance of winning a prize.

I have reservations about the duration of the licence. We must strike a balance between the duration of the licence and getting good value for money for the Exchequer. Twenty years is a long time to hold a licence. I hope the Minister and the Department are comfortable about granting a private company a 20 year licence and that there will be robust clauses in the agreement to prevent even minor abuse in the handling of the licence.

In tendering for the licence each company should state the level of its projected profits. If a private company greatly exceeds those projected profits there should be a pro-rata clawback to the Exchequer which could benefit the national lottery charities. I am also concerned that executives of the successful company might be paid exorbitant salaries. We have seen this in deregulated companies, particularly in the United Kingdom. Do we have any control over these salaries? Will a balance be struck on the basis of getting a return for the Exchequer? Considering that the current chief executive of the national lottery earns €328,000, which is one and a half times the salary of the Taoiseach, I am concerned that we might lose control over the level of salaries to be paid to executives of the new company.

I am particularly worried about the effect the licence might have when the national lottery expands into the online area, as intended. I would not like to see a national lottery portal or smart-phone app becoming a one-stop shop for online gambling companies, such as paddypower.com or betfair.com. Many people gamble on the national lottery because it gives a good rate of return and because part of the profit goes to good causes within the State. It would be easy for other companies to buy into a gateway and use the national lottery to expand its services and exploit people who may not wish to avail of their products. If the national lottery is to go online it should be with a stand-alone portal that would help the company to generate income.

I welcome the fact that the funds generated by the sale will go towards the construction of the new national children's hospital and give a boost to the health services and to employment.

I welcome the Bill but it brings concerns with it. I hope those concerns will be noted by the Minister and his Department.

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