Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 24 November 2022
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2021: National Lottery Fund
9:30 am
Mr. Derek Donohoe:
It is a private commercial operator that is operating on a for-profit basis and looking to make a return for its shareholders. That is what the directors are charged with doing and that is exactly what they are doing. Nothing was laid down in the licence or the Act that there must be a minimum amount of capital, or that the capital funding must all be in equity, or that there should be a mix of shareholder borrowing or bank borrowing. These are all matters for the operator to decide and the operator has decided them. We have oversight of the results of the operator, oversight that it has its audits complete and oversight of its financial viability. We are doing all that.
On the operator taking out as much money as it wants, if it takes it in interest, that interest comes out and then creates losses. It is-----
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