Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of queries about the proposed legislation. Given that legislation on the regulation of gambling is coming from the office of the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, in the Department of Justice, as I said the last day to my colleague, I think this issue needs to be teased out with the regulator. We would be putting the cart before the horse otherwise. We hope to have a new regulator who will make changes to the regulations in place quite soon. For him to have something forced on him at this stage would be slightly rushed. I acknowledge the sentiments of my colleague, Deputy Ward, but my firm feeling is that we should wait until that time.

As the Minister of State knows, what the people on the ground think is very important. The lotto in Ireland is very expensive. It is far more expensive to do the Irish lotto, with a minimum spend of €4, than it is to do EuroMillions. Lotto plus is €6. It is quite an expensive outlay from anyone's house at present, if they were to do it a couple of times a week. For the common man who is killing a bit of time and picking a ball for 50 cent for a chance of winning €100-odd euro, there is no comparison with the chance of winning millions in the lotto. It is chalk and cheese. The lotto was introduced in 1986. Since that time and nearly as soon as it had been formed this has been going on.

The good Senator started off talking about all the money that has been gathered over the years and all the money that has been spent on good projects through the lotto. We saw recently how any project that was in got 90% to 100% of the money they had looked for. That was the case for all the clubs recently. We never had as much money to give to clubs and schemes that have looked for it. This is in existence. The balls are being played for the last 30-odd years and we still have all this money to spend on good projects. Do we need more money?

I do not see the reason for the Bill, apart from the fact that the lottery is one of the few monopolies in this country. Are we really trying to strengthen its hand even more? I find it hard to understand what is driving this. That is my honest opinion. I know the guys here put the Bill together in good faith. For me, a lot of it does not add up. The small man on the ground is entitled to spend 50 cent on the Irish lotto. As the Minister of State said, the anomaly would be for him to have it on the British lotto balls or the EuroMillions balls or whatever else.

We cannot legislate for everything. We have legislated as strongly as we can to give the lotto a monopoly in this country. What more can we do for these guys unless they want to go around in Pampers or something? I do not know what else we can do for them. I feel very strongly about this. I am sure the Minister of State will engage with us before the end of the debate.