Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of this report is to increase transparency and Mr. Algeo is here so we can get his view on that on foot of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report. The 98%-2% advertising top-up is a source of real concern to us for a couple of reasons. It piques our interest very much and is of real concern. First, I think it is fair to say the committee feels there is a sharpness to it. Second, we feel it would not have been apparent to the players of the national lottery without the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report. Third, we want to understand the proportion of advertising that is being used from top-up funds versus other advertising and how that works overall. On an annualised basis, it looks like €17 million of the unclaimed prize money fund, which is unclaimed prize money, is used for advertising and €350,000 is used for top-ups. It piques our interest generally in relation to advertising, not just that funded money. What is PLI’s justification internally for using more than 98% of that in that way?