Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am delighted to be in the House and thank Members for the invitation. I am always impressed by the passion with which Senator O'Donnell presents any case, and tonight's presentation is no less. I almost always believe she speaks sense. I disagree with her on this issue and I want to explain the reason.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what is actually for sale. What is for sale is the licence to run a lotto in Ireland. It is not the Book of Kells. It is a licence, in the same way as we sold off mobile telephony licences last year. It is a licence which we are obliged, under European law, to put out to tender. We are doing something that has happened since the lotto was instituted, and I remember it. The last two times it happened, An Post won the competition and it may well win this competition. It is not going out of State ownership. It is a licence to broadcast and use mobile telephony and broadband. These are State assets that are put out to tender under European law in a procurement process that is open to all.

In terms of what is different about this one, there are two fundamental differences. The first is that because of the incredibly difficult financial position the State is in, we must have as much upfront payment as we can, first, to meet infrastructural demand such as the national children's hospital that people have talked about since I was in the Department of Health. We want to merge the children's hospitals, to have one flagship. Second, we want to get people back to work and stimulate as many construction projects as possible. This is only one of the stimulus packages I am trying to leverage.

In response to Senator O'Brien, I was in Brussels last week where I met Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn and Commissioner Hahn to discuss a variety of issues. I also met the principal of the European Investment Bank to leverage more investment into this economy because we want to get as many projects as we can. I will come back to the House in detail about those projects as soon as they have shaped up.

In terms of what is at stake here, there is a fundamental misunderstanding. We are not selling off anything or handing it over from the State. We are doing what we have always done. We are putting up for open tendering, as we are obliged to do, to determine who will run the lotto in the best interests of the State and its people. There are conditions attached to that which I will outline but one of the conditions is that we will set all of this out in law. I will come back to the House to give Members a line by line analysis of what we need to do, which we will frame in law. A total of 30.5% of the income of the lotto will be ring-fenced by law to good causes. It will not be a matter for dispute. I picked that figure because that was the outturn figure for last year.

In terms of fears people may have of an impact on retailers, and Senator O'Brien's contribution was passionate in that regard, that is something that must be safeguarded. People talk about rushing in. I announced this last November. We have taken the most careful due diligence in regard to this process. We met representatives of RGDATA, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association, and I understand fully their concerns. I will now say something to this House that I have not said to them. I intend to safeguard their margins in the legislation as well. That is important for them to know.