Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not need the Minister of State to agree with me. I am not in any way personally angry that people do not agree with me. I am trying to make a case by making two points. First, the sale is not under EU law, it was not under EU law and it is not part of EU Law. It was not even part of the troika's communication with the Minister at the time, it was outside of it. I have a quote by him that stated that it was outside but he and his Department made the decision which is fair enough.

Second, the Minister of State said that the competition must take place anyway. Yes, the competition does have to take place for operation but not for sale. Of course he was correct that it must be opened up for operation. I know that it was the Minister's Department which decided to sell and the idea came from New South Wales. Over the past three or four years it has been a trendy idea to sell lottery licences because they are natural cash cows, especially the Irish one which is a most magnificent sacred cash cow. I understand the reasons to sell them and to get money. Let us not say what it is not. It is not a national lottery Bill, it is the sale of the lottery licence. It is not under EU law, it was not part of the troika and is not part of EU law. It does not have to happen because one must have a competition to sell, one does not. One must have competition to open up the operation which is different from a sale. The Minister decided to sell it because he wanted the money upfront. I do not have a problem with that but let us say what it is. We are not saying what it is. My problem is that we are not doing it for ourselves and that we are letting somebody else do it. I am not against the measure but we could have done it for ourselves by providing a weekly draw. That is my opinion and I am not against the measure. I am opposed to selling it to a gaming consortium from outside of the island. Here we go again. It reminds me of what happened to Shell, pharmaceutical companies, Eircom and the privatisation of public moneys.