Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 87: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if agreement was reached between any agency or State body attached to his Department to support or assist in any way in the development of the proposed Sonas development on the former Phoenix Park Racecourse at Castleknock, Dublin 15; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33141/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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In August 1994, the National Lottery Company informed the Department of Finance that it had entered into a reciprocal confidentiality agreement with a third party, the Vector Ogden Group, which had a proposal to build a complex in the old Phoenix Park Racecourse comprising an International Conference Centre and a casino. I understand that such an agreement was considered a necessary preliminary to the National Lottery Company's investigating with these promoters the prospects of the Company's involvement in the casino side of this operation. I am informed that this agreement was signed in July 1994 by An Post, the National Lottery Company, and Ogden Entertainment Services (Ireland) Ltd and that the agreement was effective from the date of its signing and had a termination date of 31 December 1994.

In February 1998, the Chairman of the National Lottery Company wrote to the Department of Finance about the Company's intention to go into a 12-month non-disclosure agreement with Sonas Centre Ltd, stating that Sonas had "expressed an interest in considering the NLC [the National Lottery Company] in some role in relation to casino gaming and for this to be evaluated by the parties, a non-disclosure agreement is necessary". Having considered the matter, and with the agreement of the then Minister, the Department replied in March 1998 informing the National Lottery Company that it would have no objection to the National Lottery Company's entering the agreement.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 88: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if consideration was given to amend legislation to permit casino gaming during the 1989 to 1994 period; the level of his involvement and that of the National Lottery Company in this process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33143/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The establishment and operation of a casino would be subject to the provisions of the Gaming and Lotteries Acts, which are a matter, in the first instance, for my colleague the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

In respect of the period referred to by the Deputy, the records in my Department do not indicate that the National Lottery Company made any proposal to the Minister for Finance or the Department that would have necessitated an amendment to legislation to permit casino gaming and do not suggest that the Minister or the Department were involved in formulating such amendments to legislation.