Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 20 May 2003

Vol. 567 No. 1

Written Answers. - National Lottery.

Pat Rabbitte

Ceist:

214 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons appointed from 1986 to date under section 6 of the National Lottery Act 1986 to examine the conduct generally of the national lottery and to report thereon to him; the number of reports made to him in that period; the dates of those reports; if such reports have included recommendations in relation to the national lottery or its conduct, including in particular recommendations as to the system for selecting winning tickets and the methods employed to prevent fraud in or the manipulation of, that system and to ensure its fairness, accuracy, efficiency and reliability; and if so, if those recommendations have been implemented. [13760/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

No appointments under section 6 of the National Lottery Act 1986, which provides for its independent scrutiny, have been made since its commencement in 1987.

The An Post National Lottery Company operates the National Lottery Company. It has consistently employed a global best practices approach in both its operations and procedures, including the employment of an independent firm of chartered accountants to act as auditors and independent observers of the lottery draws. Successive Ministers for Finance have been satisfied that this is the case. This satisfaction has been confirmed and reinforced in the detailed assessments undertaken as part of the tendering and awarding procedures relating to the award of the licence to APNLC to operate the national lottery. It also includes the employment by my Department of independent consultants to advise on the matter.

The company's adherence to these best practice procedures has been recognised in the achievement of the ISO 9001 accreditation.