Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As Deputies stated, we have debated this matter at great length on Committee Stage. Despite the best efforts of the Chair, we had a debate on Second Stage and an exchange of views, which was not normal. It has all been helpful.

The rationale is that the licence for the national lottery is due to be reallocated. Contrary to what the Deputies opposite have stated, it was always open to anyone in the European Union to bid for the licence when it was available. The last time that the lottery licence was allocated, a Swiss company came close to winning the bidding. As events transpired, An Post won the lotto licence on the two most recent occasions that it was allocated.

Shortly after entering into office and because we were desperately short of capital to build the infrastructure the country needed, pre-eminently the requirement to build a new national children's hospital, the Government made a decision to try to find an innovative way of providing capital funds to ensure the hospital's construction. Deputy Boyd Barrett and others have suggested that the hospital could have a dedicated lotto or a portion of the lotto stream over the next God knows how many years. These are possible, but they would eat into the funding stream for good causes. Many people were sceptical of the lotto at its inception, as Deputy Boyd Barrett acknowledged he was, but it has since provided in excess of €4 billion for good causes. Sports, arts, health and community organisations are to the good because of a funding stream that would not have been available from any other source.

The Bill's objective is to build on the good foundation stone - I acknowledge that the lotto has been a good model - and to ensure that everything we have learned of best practice, for example, in protecting minors and compulsive gamblers, is incorporated in this legislation. We must transfer elements from the operation of the lotto to the general gambling space. During our debates, we touched on the wider issue of gambling generally beyond the structure of the national lottery. A great deal comes at us now in the form of online casinos and God knows what else. In many ways, I am not a gambler, thank God, although I suppose that I gamble in politics.

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