The Public Hospitals Acts, 1933 to 1940, authorise the holding of sweeps in aid of the Hospitals Trust Fund by sweepstake committees appointed by the governing bodies of hospitals and provide that the scheme for each sweep must be sanctioned by the Minister for Justice. The Acts provide that the amount of the net receipts of any sweep which may be applied to the payment of expenses must not exceed 30 per cent or such lower percentage as the Minister for Justice when sanctioning the scheme for any sweepstake may determine. They also provide that the balance of the net receipts after payment of expenses, prizes and stamp duty must be paid into the Hospitals Trust Fund.
The Hospitals Trust Fund is managed by the Hospitals Trust Board, a body appointed by the Minister for Health, and payments out of the fund are made to hospitals and nursing organisations on the directions of the Minister for Health. Section 6 of the Public Hospitals Act, 1933, provides that whenever the participating hospitals propose to hold a sweepstake, a sweepstake committee must prepare and submit to the Minister for Justice a scheme specifying, among other things, particulars of the prizes intended to be distributed, the date, place and manner of the draw, the price of tickets, the maximum amount which may be expended by way of commission, prizes or other remuneration in relation to the sale of tickets, the proportion of free tickets to be allotted as reward to sellers, the date on which the sale of tickets is to commence, and the name of the chartered accountant who is to audit the accounts relating to the sweepstake.
The purpose of the Bill is to increase the expenses allowable to the promoters of sweepstakes held under the Public Hospitals Acts, 1933 to 1940, from 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the net receipts and to increase from 20 per cent to 30 per cent the minimum amount of the net receipts of a sweepstake that must go to the Hospitals Trust Board and to the Exchequer by way of stamp duty. The audited accounts of the sweepstakes held in the last two years indicate that the expenses of the promoters have exceeded 30 per cent of the net receipts and they have said that it is impossible for them to continue to run the sweepstakes within the limits of the expenses allowed by the Acts. The second provision in relation to the amount payable to the Hospitals Trust Board together with stamp duty merely gives statutory force to what has been sanctioned by me in the scheme for each sweepstake since October, 1975.
Up to 1973 the amount spent on promoters expenses for each sweepstake was approximately 25 per cent of the net receipts. Gradually through 1973 that percentage crept up almost to the statutory limit of 30 per cent. In the first sweep in 1974 the expenses amounted to 29.32 per cent and the promoters, Hospitals Trust (1940) Ltd. indicated that the figure could not continue to be contained within the limit of 30 per cent because of increasing cost of salaries, wages, stationery, printing, postage and so on. In 1974 the promoters sought an increase in the price of sweep tickets from £1 to £2 and an increase in the super prize from £200,000 to £400,000. These changes came into effect in relation to the Cambridgeshire, 1975, which was run in October, 1975, and in the meantime the actual expenses incurred in running sweepstakes in 1974 and in the first half of 1975 were in excess of 30 per cent of the net receipts. Figures taken from the audited accounts show that the expenses in relation to the Cambridgeshire, 1974 were 32.46 per cent, the Sweeps Hurdle, 1974, 32.19 per cent, the Lincoln, 1975, 34.44 per cent and the Irish Sweeps Derby, 1975, 35.68 per cent.
The expenses in excess of 30 per cent of the net receipts of these sweepstakes had to be borne by the promoters and this excess amounted to over £440,000 for the four sweeps. The promoters normally receive a fee for managing and organising a sweepstake but in the cases I have instanced where the expenses were in excess of 30 per cent this fee was not paid. The Cambridgeshire, 1975, which was the first sweep where £2 was charged for a ticket and a super prize of £400,000 given showed an improvement and the expenses of that sweepstake were 30.05 per cent of the net receipts. The audited accounts for the Irish Sweeps Hurdle, 1975, which is the latest sweep for which accounts are available, show that the expenses for that sweepstake came to 34.25 per cent of the net receipts.
In the light of these figures the Government accept that the statutory 30 per cent limitation is no longer realistic. The alternative to allowing the increase now sought is to see the sweeps go out of business with the consequent loss of direct employment to nearly a thousand people and a loss of a steady source of income to hospitals, as well as a loss of revenue in stamp duty. The salaries, wages and State insurance of employees now runs in excess of £2 million a year while expenses on such things as stationery, printing, postage, advertising and so on all help to generate employment and keep people in their jobs. In the circumstances it seems reasonable to raise the statutory limitation on the amount that may be paid on expenses from 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the net receipts and section 1, subsection (2) (a), of the Bill provides accordingly.
Section 1, subsection (2) (c), proposes that the amount of the net receipts of a sweepstake that must go to the Hospitals Trust Board together with stamp duty shall be not less than 30 per cent. This is to replace the present requirement that not less than 20 per cent of the net receipts must be so paid. When approving the increase in the price of tickets from £1 to £2 and the increase in the super prize from £200,000 to £400,000, the Government made it a condition that this amount should be increased to a minimum of 30 per cent of the net receipts and accordingly the proposal in the Bill when enacted will, as I have mentioned already, do no more than give statutory force to an existing arrangement which has been provided for by me in the scheme for each sweepstake since the price of a ticket was increased to £2. Senators might wish to know that the total amount paid to the Hospitals Trust Fund from sweepstakes up to and including the Irish Sweeps Hurdle, 1975, was over £82 million.
I commend the Bill to the House.