Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

Governance is all about the art of making choices. I firmly believe that there is never a situation in which there are only two choices. It is for this reason that I would like the Minister to give further considerations to the options available in respect of raising money in order to discover whether there are any which will not have as negative an impact in the overall context as selling the national lottery. If the plan to sell is to proceed, then I urge him to endeavour to incorporate as many safeguards as possible in the licence in the interests of protecting the margins paid to the local shops and news agents in which national lottery machines are located. I ask him to examine ways to ensure that local shops, particularly those in rural areas with low population densities, will not be deprived of their lottery machines. The removal of such machines would, of course, result in lower overall maintenance costs for the operating company. The businesses to which I refer will serve as low-hanging fruit in the context of driving the profit margins of the purchaser of the national lottery.

I ask the Minister to bear in mind that in the context of the charitable and community ethos which has surrounded the national lottery in Ireland since its inception, it can prove all too easy to adopt a numbers-only approach and refer to this as a "business-minded approach" to government. In light of the drive towards efficiency and reform, we need to consider the impact of the sale of assets in its totality. We must take into account not just the immediate monetary impact but also the many and varying ripple effects while will occur as a result of the sale. I look forward to the Minister's reply in respect of the issues I have outlined.