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

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 7, to delete lines 12 to 19.

There are quite a few amendments being taken together and they all relate to the regulator. This amendment proposes to delete lines 12 to 19 on page 7, which essentially allow for the regulator of the national lottery. We discussed this at length on Committee Stage and I found that discussion helpful in that I got some information that I had not been fully clued into beforehand. Arising from that information, it is now all the more necessary that we move these amendments.

The Minister made it clear the new national lottery licence will be handled by the Minister and the Department, as has always been the case, with him setting the terms and conditions, fees, remuneration levels and all other aspects. He will collect the money and allocate it appropriately. Then, however, he told us that he will set up a regulator for the national lottery. Why? If the intention was that the new national lottery regulator would administer and run the new licence process, like many other regulators do, such as the regulator that handled the competition for the 4G licences, that would be fine. Someone has got to the Minister, however, and he is following current fashions, whereby every time something needs to be done, we have to set up a regulator. It is obvious that the Minister will do all the work, as his predecessors in the Department did. He has already admitted he has hardly ever heard a squeak from the public about it, and there were hardly any parliamentary questions on it.

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