Seanad debates

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

National Lottery Bill 2012: Committee Stage

 

7:35 pm

Photo of Marie Louise O'DonnellMarie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a question. Would we gain more from borrowing the money for ourselves from a bank that has €500 million? Maybe we could ask Mr. Richie Boucher for his salary? He has a lot of money from his salary. I am not being smart, but can the Minister tell me what will be extracted from the lottery for this upfront payment? What will continue to be extracted? Will we Senators know that? I know the Minister's heart is in the right place, but is this not the privatisation of public funding, which we are totally against in this country? We have seen what it has done. We know that any kind of private gaming consortium, or people who have lots of money, who come in and bid on something must get back their profit. It is their duty to get back their profit. Camelot Group gave a £5 million advance to its board seven or eight weeks ago because of its success. It is crazy. There is the other side of this, that is the privatisation of public funding. I just do not think the upfront payment is worth it. I want to know what is going to be extracted and what will continue to be extracted over the 20 years, because we do not know what Ireland will look like in three years, let alone 20 years.

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