National Lottery Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-17 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for being in the House this afternoon. I understand that the Minister with responsibility, whose presence I had requested, is travelling overseas, so I appreciate that the Minister of State has taken the time to come to respond to this Commencement matter. I had been seeking that the Minister for public expenditure would attend the Seanad today to update us on his engagement with the Gambling Regulatory Authority on the regulations that will be issued for gambling and betting. I am specifically seeking clarification from the Minister on his engagement with the authority on the national lottery. As the Minister of State will be aware, the national lottery comes under the remit of the Minister with responsibility for public expenditure. Next year, the national lottery will be 40 years old. In the 40 years, more than €6 billion of funding has been dispensed to good causes including everything from sports pitches to theatres, museums and the Special Olympics. It channels funding from ordinary citizens who play the lotto in their local newsagent or Spar or Centra, to the governing bodies and organisations, which in turn support cultural, sporting and charitable good causes in all of our communities around the country. It is incredibly valuable funding and it is an incredibly valuable mechanism for the citizens of Ireland to have available to them to play the lotto, have a chance to win, but know at the same time that they are contributing towards good causes, primarily charitable causes. A pattern and activity has developed whereby betting organisations are taking bets on the lotto. People are betting on what the lotto result will be. A lot of them think they are betting on the lotto and contributing to the fund that contributes to and funds good causes but in actual fact, what they are doing is placing a bet in a bookies or online with a bookie, and that bet is on the outcome of the lotto. What is the result? It is fewer sales for the lotto. That means fewer funds for the lotto to distribute to good causes. It is damaging our national lottery. It is damaging a fund that was directly created to give citizens an opportunity to contribute to good causes in a regulated and structured manner and in a way that is really meaningful and that has been hugely powerful. I was hoping the Minister for public expenditure with responsibility for the lottery and its integrity, which we all recognise as a valuable entity, could update the House on what action his Department is taking to engage with the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which was established under the gambling regulations legislation introduced in 2024 to stop that practice. Most countries in Europe have banned the practice of betting on the lottery. Ireland is an outlier and we are falling behind our European partners in this regard. We need to catch up because if we do not, it is going to continue to damage the lottery. It is going to continue to erode and take from sales of the lottery, which in turn erodes and takes from the fund that is available to good causes. I again thank the Minister of State for being here. I hope that the Department has sent him with an update that will outline to the House what actions are being taken to protect the national lottery and to ensure that it continues to be available as a valuable fund to help support good causes right across the country. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-17