ccording to a report from The Wall Street Journal newspaper, last year saw the current National Lottery licence holder, An Post National Lottery Company, pay a tax of 30.5 percent of all tickets sales to the government, which equated to 260 million euros, while Budget Minister Brendan Howlin revealed that the winner of the new tender will be expected to continue this arrangement.
An Post won the right to operate the National Lottery for a ten-year period in December of 2001 following a formal tender and pays an upfront annual management fee of 2.8 million euros. November saw the Irish government extend this term until July of 2013 in order to allow time to put in place the competitive process for the new licence.
“The government needs to be innovative and creative where opportunities arise to generate additional resources for the state,” said Howlin. “In addition, I am locking-in a sizeable future revenue stream as part of any deal. The ongoing money towards good causes will be retained at current percentage levels. This will be a good deal for the state and the taxpayer. Where the state identifies options to generate additional revenues that don’t impact on taxpayers we need to pursue them.”
The funds will be used to aid the construction of a new National Children’s Hospital.
