Vol. 524 No. 1
116 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Finance the percentage of national lottery funding for the last full year which is being devoted to sports in view of the fact that the original purpose of setting up the lottery was solely to fund sports facilities and activities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21147/00]
While the responsibility for sporting facilities rests with the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation. I have overall responsibility for the national lottery.
The national lottery was not set up to fund sport exclusively. The National Lottery Act, 1986, designated four beneficiary categories:
(1)sport and other recreation;
(2)national culture, including the Irish language;
(3)the Arts (within the meaning of the Arts Act, 1951); and
(4)health of the community.
The Act also enabled the Government to designate additional categories. When it became clear that the amount of national lottery surplus would be many more times than originally forecast the Government designated the following additional categories:
(5) youth;
(6) welfare;
(7) national heritage;
(8) amenities; and
(9) charitable lotteries fund.
All these categories over the years have received substantial lottery funding.
For presentation purposes it has been the practice to show youth-sport-recreation-amenities together as there is a degree of overlap between them.
117 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Finance the amount of national lottery funding which was devoted to sports in the first year of its operation. [21148/00]
While responsibility for sport rests with the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, I have overall responsibility for the national lottery.
For presentation purposes it has been the practice to show youth-sport-recreation amenities together as there is a certain degree of overlap between them.
Lottery-funded expenditure on youth-sportrecreation amenities in the first year of national lottery's operation was as follows: 1987 £3.889 million 37% of lottery funding.
