Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I totally get where Senator Clifford-Lee is coming from with this amendment. The national lottery's relationship with the people of Ireland is twofold. In the first instance, hundreds of thousands of people play the lotto every week who would not dream of going into a betting shop and do not bet online. Practically every old age pensioner in the country plays the lotto. The second point is that there is not a town or village in the country that has not benefitted from national lottery funding since its inception in 1986 under the late Jim Mitchell, who was communications Minister at the time. I spoke against the privatisation of the national lottery in the previous term. Unfortunately, the economic circumstances back then were of a nature that this was an opportunity to raise €400 million or €500 million in one go. The Government in its wisdom went for it. I did not agree with it. I did not believe the national lottery should have been handed over to a private company. It is interesting to hear the Minister of State speak about the private company that is running the national lottery and giving it a competitive advantage over others. Had it not been privatised we would not be talking about it as a private company but that is neither here nor there. We are where we are.

I share the sentiments expressed by Senator Clifford-Lee in her amendment but I also see logic of the Minister of State's position in terms of giving a company that was privatised a competitive advantage over others.