Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I can say I often raised the question as to why money was never ring-fenced. The money one pays for a national lottery ticket goes from the newsagent through An Post straight to the Exchequer. One then hopes a Minister will spend it on the good causes on which one expects it to be spent, but this is not the practical reality. I am very concerned about the lack of a legal commitment or a dedicated draw, such as that proposed by Senator O'Donnell for the children's hospital in her motion, because we do not have a track record as a nation of dedicating the moneys supposedly reserved for good causes to those good causes. The money goes to the Department of Health and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and is occasionally delivered out. This system, which has continued for almost 30 years through various Governments, is wrong. I tried to change it and I made this point on a regular basis because I was frustrated no money was distributed in certain years for national lottery good causes, or so it seemed to me.

A dedicated draw, as proposed by Senator O'Donnell for the children's hospital, or a legal obligation on the Government to use money from lottery proceeds towards the children's hospital will be essential. Otherwise people will not have faith in the system if they believe this is simply a political commitment and not a legal one. People need to be able to grab onto something and know for definite where their money is going. This is not in the proposed legislation. The people do not trust political commitments from any party on these matters. We need a law or a measure such as that proposed by Senator O'Donnell.

There will be a good debate about the National Lottery and I hope Senator O'Donnell's campaign takes off. Sometimes debates in these Houses do not get reported very widely. Legislation may be guillotined or passed in the midst of much other legislation, and gets ignored by the wider public. This debate will be useful to get the public involved in the debate so they know what is proposed for their lottery and can respond and changes can be made if this is what they desire. I compliment Senator O'Donnell for the motion and we will certainly support it.