I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 64 together.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is responsible for the State Savings schemes which includes Prize Bonds. I am informed by the NTMA that they define unclaimed prizes from the Prize Bond draws as prizes that have remained unclaimed for more than six months. Unclaimed prizes remain a liability of the NTMA to the Prize Bond holder – or their estate in the case of deceased customers. Unclaimed prizes are not transferred to the Dormant Accounts fund but are held in a Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) account and thus are available to the Exchequer.
The NTMA has advised that the value of unclaimed prizes from the Prize Bond draw amounted to €2.146 million as at the end of May 2013. Amounts unclaimed in respect of previous years are as follows:
Draw Year
|
Amount (€m)
outstanding
at end-May 2013
|
Older
|
0.73
|
2003
|
0.07
|
2004
|
0.09
|
2005
|
0.09
|
2006
|
0.10
|
2007
|
0.11
|
2008
|
0.12
|
2009
|
0.15
|
2010
|
0.18
|
2011
|
0.21
|
2012
|
0.30
|
Total
|
2.15
|
Details of all unclaimed prizes are available on the website StateSavings.ie or can be obtained by writing to State Savings, GPO, FREEPOST, Dublin 1.