Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Bidders from other jurisdictions, as well as Ireland, may well bid for the licence. I do not know yet but I hope they do. Therefore, it follows that the licence cannot deliberately be kept under Irish ownership. I have explained this point repeatedly. The State may set the terms for both the competition and the licence itself - these terms concern the duration of the licence and the final arrangements underpinning it - but the Government has no legal authority to determine that only an Irish bidder will succeed. Were I to make such provision, I would open the State to being sued instantly and the entire licence would be nullified by the European Court of Justice.

This will not be the first time that a competition has been held for this licence. Some Senators will recall that a competition for the current licence was held between 1999 and 2001, which attracted interest from three interested parties, not all of which were from the State. Following the withdrawal of the other two parties during the course of the competition, the licence was awarded finally to the incumbent, namely, An Post National Lottery Company. This might well be the case again. I do not know. It might be a successful bidder, either by itself or in tandem with others. As I have stated, I am not involved in dialogue with any individual or potential bidder.

The Government is using the opportunity presented by the competition for a new licence to generate an upfront payment. This was an innovation when I was trying to put together a stimulus package, and I refer to another point made that somehow this is not part of the EU-IMF targets. It deliberately is not, as I kept it separate because under the original EU-IMF target negotiated by the predecessor Government, all the proceeds of the sale of State assets had to be used to retire debt. Through repeated negotiation over a year and a half, the troika has agreed the Government may use half of those proceeds to invest in job creation in this State, with the balance being used as a backstop to generate even more money, but ultimately to retire debt. This concerns half of the money the Government will generate from the sale of State assets. However, I have always kept this sale separate because I wish to use it in its entirety for good purposes, the predominant part of which will be to build the new children's hospital. I have not included that aim in the Bill because there is no necessity to so do. One does not include such a provision into a 20-year structure for the Bill. However, I can give Members my word - which I hope is good enough - that this is my intention and that of the Government in respect of this matter.