Keep Politics Out of the Lottery

News emerged on 7^th January this year that the constituency of the Minister of Health had received massive grants from HSE administered lottery funds. A similar report in May last year demonstrated that the Taoiseach’s constituency had also received a disproportionate allocation of funds from the National Lottery.

These news items illustrate the lack of transparency and fairness in lottery funds allocation as highlighted in a report from the Economic and Social Review last summer that concluded that “the introduction of a scheme similar to that used in the UK” could “reduce political influence on fund distribution”

Inbuilt Unfairness
The same report also points out that in general people with low incomes spend a higher proportion of that income on the lottery. The report's authors argue that this inherent unfairness can be corrected by ensuring that funds distribution favours schemes that benefit low income groups.
A Bill to establish a new National Lottery was published a few days before Christmas and is currently passsing through the Oireachtas so now is the ideal time to lobby TDs in order to have a clause inserted that will remove ministerial influence from lottery funds distribution.