No request for such approval has been presented to me since my appointment as Minister for Finance. However, as the Deputy will be aware from my response last week (Dáil Question No. 87 answered on 6 December 2007), 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.