Mr. Brian Purcell:

I thank the Chairman for allowing me to speak again. I must leave in a moment.

I wish to restate my earlier comment. We carried out the audit and got the letter back. We would have expected a formal response to some of the recommendations made, but we did not get it. At that stage, a policy decision was taken that the scheme would be wound down and the matter proceeded on that basis. A letter issued on 5 October, inviting submissions that people wished to make. We were then notified that leave to take a judicial review had been sought in November. There was no question of a meeting after this. As I stated, the decision to wind down the scheme was taken in the context of our examination of our overall budgetary situation and the need to find savings. In addition, we felt there were issues in relation to the scheme. The audit brought to the fore the issue that there were very high costs involved. The main reasons were that we believed the existing criteria for the scheme created an incentive to run these charitable lotteries at a very low profit margin or even, in some instances, at a loss. Further, there was no incentive to keep administrative costs down and, of the profits generated, the amount going to the charitable causes was often very low, given the first two reasons I gave. In addition, the lotteries had effectively come to service vehicles for the generation of charitable lotteries funding rather than as mechanisms for raising charitable funding directly from the public, as originally intended. Those were the reasons the policy decision was taken. We regarded the implementation of the recommendations made in the report as a proportionate response in circumstances where the policy decision was taken to wind them down. They were mainly administrative outcomes to the audit and have been put in place. As the funding continues to be dispersed for the period that the fund will remain in place, the recommendations which the audit identified are being carried out.