Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all contributors. I believe this to be the fifth time I have been in this House to discuss the lottery. While there are a great many highly significant issues under my Department's remit, it is interesting that this matter has taken a considerable time. I commend people on that, as it is important that due diligence be done. In addition, the last time I was in this Chamber, someone mentioned passion and I am all in favour of it. It is a good thing for people to feel strongly about any issue. It is important, as it does not happen often enough that people would argue their case. While I do not wish to take up Members' time, I have laid out what must be done and perhaps I might make a few small reports to the House? In respect of the children's hospital, the timescale for its construction has moved out more than the Government had expected. I had hoped there would be a juxtaposition of the sale of the lottery licence, the payment of an upfront cash amount to the State and the construction. However, that is not going to happen quite as serendipitously or in as dovetailed a fashion as I originally had envisaged. Nevertheless, periodic reports are now coming to the Cabinet on the phasing of the national children's hospital, which I believe will be a flagship project.

I said previously that I am committed, once the sale is completed and money is allocated to the State, to depositing the money. In the other House there was a strong view, supported by Fianna Fáil in this House, that it must be clear the money would be deposited somewhere and not dissipated away from the children's hospital. I said I would come back once we had determined the sum of money and explain how that would happen.

We differed about the regulator but we made our points. A number of Members talked about expressions of interest. I have stayed away from all of that area and I set up a protocol in the beginning for the sale of State assets. I have not been involved and I have not received any representations for it. I read the newspapers, however, and I saw today in The Irish Timesthat there is one significant international company hoping to make a joint bid with An Post. I heard from a Seanad colleague today that another domestic bid is coming. Perhaps there will be a number of bids.

Senator O'Donnell is right; this is a balancing act and it is not my intention to maximise the upfront payment at the cost of not having a regulated lottery. The lottery is regulated so there is a cost to be paid for that which I am willing to recommend to the House rather than having an open-ended bid for money. On balance, I think this is right.

Senators are aware there are limited online sales for the current lottery. That is how we will migrate, with most of our business being done online over the next 20 years. It would be appropriate to provide the facility for the lottery to do it.

I do not want to end in a discordant fashion but there has been much debate about whether the sale of State assets was included in the original troika agreement. The original troika agreement stated the Government would consider the report of the then ongoing McCarthy report. At my first meeting with the troika after the Government was formed, it was strongly of the view and understood a quantum of €5 billion of State assets would be sold. The agreement in the programme for Government is a considerably lesser sum but the key is we sell nothing that is strategic. We can debate what is strategic and what is not but the items that are in line for sales, as I indicated last week, are non-strategic in my judgment. If there are other bodies such as Coillte, we will have another discussion about those matters.

I thank Senators for a constructive and courteous debate. Views were expressed with passion and thoughtful and considered amendments were tabled.