National Lottery
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-17
============================================================

Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

The Minister of State could not have done better justice to the Commencement, particularly considering his personal history with it. Well done to him. He outlined perfectly how to the lotto works to fund grassroots good causes.
I welcome the reply, which outlines very clearly the responsibilities that rest with the GRAI and the Minister for public expenditure. I also welcome the fact that officials from the Department met with the GRAI as recently as December and are examining this issue. I would urge the Minister of State, not just in his capacity as a Minister of State in the Government but as somebody with a personal history and a real appreciation of the value of the national lottery to good causes in our country, to personally engage with the officials on this issue. As I said, Ireland is falling behind other countries in Europe. We are, I believe, one of only three countries left in the European Union that have not yet banned betting on the lotto. I urge the Minister of State to engage with the officials and to work with them to seek and secure a ban on betting on the lotto. It will only protect the lotto, the fund and a source of essential funding for good causes. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could take that action.

---

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