Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the National Lottery Bill. The national lottery has been extremely successful since its establishment in 1987. Unfortunately, as was the case when the lottery was established, the country once again finds itself in an extremely difficult economic position, indeed significantly worse than was the case in the 1980s, when at least we had control of our economic sovereignty. It is this overriding factor that means the Government must think outside the box when dealing with the expiry of the current lottery licence in June.

One of the main reasons the national lottery was so successful is that the public bought into the ethos behind it. As far as I recall, there has never been any hint of scandal with regard to the national lottery. People know it is run in a fair and transparent manner. They are also acutely aware that lottery money is a source of funding for many important projects in local areas. I was particularly pleased a number of important projects in County Monaghan received funding as part of this year's national lottery allocation. This included an allocation of €25,000 for Ardaghey Community Development to enable it to expand its current community facilities. I visited the community centre in Ardaghey last year and the work that is going on there is a credit to all involved. It provides services to young and old and the centre is the bedrock of the local community.

The meals on wheels service from the Aontas centre in Castleblayney received €4,000 in funding. This is an excellent service for the Castleblayney area and is a vital resource for elderly people in the area.

Furthermore, Enable Ireland received €2,000 in funding while €1,500 was provided to Cavan Monaghan Carers. These are not considerable sums, but they are critical to sustaining these important projects which are of significant benefit to local communities in County Monaghan and across the country.

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