Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand where the Minister of State is coming from. However, although this Bill comes under his remit, and I acknowledge the enormous volume of work that he has done on it as well as within the Department to bring it here, it affects every Department and its success affects every Department. I understand what he said. He started out by saying that we cannot guarantee that the money that would be saved through this mechanism would necessarily go back to the national lottery. That is true. However, since I published my Private Members Bill I have received various estimates from the national lottery and also from betting companies that have approached me in opposition to the Bill and presented a range of studies that express various different figures as to how much it would benefit or otherwise the national lottery. The most pessimistic of those estimates still range into nine figures in terms of the value of this amendment. We are talking about millions and millions of euro that are not going into the good causes fund, that could otherwise go in. The Minister of State will excuse me if I am unconcerned about whether it is within his remit. He may well need Government approval and that is fine. There will be a Cabinet meeting between the time we leave this Chamber today and the time that this Bill finishes its passage through this House. Will the Minister of State please ask for that Government approval?

My understanding always was that there was not a policy difficulty within the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform on this. It makes sense on every level. The only people who are opposed to it are betting companies. They are the only ones opposed to it because it benefits the national lottery and much more importantly than that, it benefits every community, town, village, small business that sells lottery tickets and every community organisation that received funding from the good causes fund. There is a massively broad benefit across the spectrum for people in respect of these amendments. The only people who lose out are corporate interests that are already massively profitable within this jurisdiction.

I will resubmit the amendments on Report Stage. I place no blame at the Minister of State's door on this but I hope he will speak to his ministerial colleague and seek approval for this amendment because it is something that is already on the Order Paper of this House. It will not progress, realistically, before the election. However, this is an opportunity to actually achieve something in addition to this. While I said that it was incongruous that it is within this Bill, it is incongruous because the national lottery is not regulated. However, the very bodies affected by these amendments are also those that all of us have been talking about every time we have had a debate on this Bill. They are the bodies that will be regulated by the new regulator. This is a very clear statement of intent regarding how we are going to allow them to use or abuse what is de facto public infrastructure paid for by taxpayers, albeit licensed to a private company but with a massive social dividend to this country. It would be a real shame to let this opportunity slip by. I hope the Minister of State will be able to give me a more positive answer on Report Stage.