Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I disagree with the Senator. I believe the regulator is a bigger job than that and it would not be a case of having nothing else to do. There are two massive strands to this: the regulation of the lottery, because it is so vast and because it makes so much money, starting at €763 million per year; and the distribution of money to good causes, including the questions of objectivity and how we distribute the money.

The Government is often accused of being prejudicial when it comes to giving lottery money to constituencies.

The opening up of online gambling is an enormous issue. I agree with the Minister - it is possibly the only thing on which I have ever agreed with him - that it is a most important role. Objectivity is the key, which is why the regulator is in place, not a civil servant who has nothing better to do. Other lotteries around the world have regulators who like to speak to other regulators about co-ordinated lottery funding, namely, north-south, which did not happen here for that very reason.