Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It states "operation" and not "sale". It was the Minister - a Labour Party member - who had the idea to privatise public funding.

That has come from his own office. It is his decision. It is one I do not wish to live with but it is not under European Union law. We had a competition in the past but it was a competition for operation, not sale. We all know that because of the brilliant way An Post runs the lottery in Ireland, it does not make a huge profit. The way we will do that for the outside gaming consortiums is by opening up online gambling. That is how we will attract them in to give us their €500 million.