Mr. Joe Tierney:

To a relatively small extent. There are a lot of misconceptions and urban myths out there. There is a great deal of bad media and the media appear to want only two things from the national lottery, that is, €10 million winners in syndicates or bad news. If the media can get a scandal, it circulates.

At shop floor level we have had some hassle and some problems. The biggest problem is with the ticket checker. One never realises how much one uses something until it is gone. If any of us were to have our mobile telephone take from us today we would feel like our left hand had been taken away. The ticket checker worked well. It allowed people to find out quickly whether they had a winning ticket or not. Now, counter staff have to check the tickets and tell people whether or not they have winning tickets. The national lottery direction is that we give tickets back to people. However, many people ask us to tear them up. Sometimes people come back saying they believe the ticket they were told was not a winning ticket was in fact a winning ticket, which is unsavoury. We only discovered in September-October last that the ticket checkers put in place under the old regime were not going to be compatible with the new system and that there would be a period during which they would be inoperable. That was a big shock to everybody, not least the national lottery itself. Why it took so long for it to realise is a question that will have to be raised with it.

From that point on national lottery sales became a hassle in the shops. Did it lose credibility for the lottery? I am not sure. Are tickets sales down? I do not think so. The national lottery reading last week, based on its projections for the year, is that lottery sales are up by 0.02%. The number of outlets now licensed as lottery agents has increased by 300 under the new agreement. In regard to whether people are no longer playing the lottery because of the recent fiascoes, the answer is that is not the case. Jackpots are reaching the same levels as before and people are playing the lottery. Some shops say that they are not selling as many tickets but according to the national lottery, sales have increased.

Another urban myth is that prizes have decreased. The percentage of prizes is copperfastened. That is the information from the national lottery. We have no reason not to believe what we are being told by the national lottery. Last week, we were given a tour of the help-desk area, where we saw 12 people manning the phones and charts on the walls indicating that the level of calls have returned to those pre introduction of the new terminals.