Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty I have is when we talk about prize money, international practice such as the United States is put to us. When we talk about regulation, we should be looking at the United Stats model but we are not. If we will approach this from an international best practice point of view, we should do so across the board.

The only question I have asked, and I have asked it repeatedly, is whether the Department has carried out an economic analysis to ensure the money is distributed in the most effective way from an economic and a social point of view. I take it the answer is that has never been done.