Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to introduce measures to ensure traceability to specific projects in respect of funding for good causes from the national lottery that are allocated to departmental budgets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29925/14]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister introduce measures to ensure traceability to specific projects in respect of funding provided from the proceeds of the national lottery good causes fund? Some Departments such as the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport do it very well, but nobody in the other big Departments knows where the money goes.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Appendix 1 of the Revised Estimates for Public Services which is published each year gives a breakdown, by Department, of all expenditure areas supported by the proceeds of the national lottery. For approximately a decade, the total allocation for the relevant subheads has exceeded the amount available from the national lottery surplus. Therefore, these subheads are now described as being part-funded by the national lottery and the balance of the expenditure in the subheads comes from allocations from normal Exchequer sources. For example, this year overall expenditure under the subheads supported by the national lottery is estimated at €408 million, while the proceeds deliverable from the national lottery are estimated at just over €200 million. The balance comes from the Exchequer as a top-up. Individual Departments with responsibility for expenditure part-funded by the national lottery surplus publish details of their expenditure on their websites, including lists of recipient organisations and the amounts involved.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate what the Minister has said and it is accurate to a point, but it is not the full story. I fully accept that people can see the exact location of money allocated by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport which made an announcement last week. I draw the attention of the Minister to other areas. He mentioned Appendix 1. The biggest Department receiving funds from the national lottery appears to be the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the biggest area is housing, probably comprising grants for elderly people and what used to be known as disabled person's grants, community facilities in housing projects and support for community and voluntary organisations. In the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht a lot of money goes to An Comhairle Ealaíon. Further amounts go through the HSE. Youth organisations receive approximately €50 million through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. In these cases what we see are lump sums. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government cannot state to which housing projects the money was allocated. It can state 20 housing projects were part-funded but not how much went where.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I looked at the subheads on foot of the question asked. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government includes an allocation of €38.6 million under subhead A.7 - private housing grants. They include the housing adaption grants for people with a disability. This scheme provides grants of up to €30,000 to assist people with a disability in having necessary adaptation and improvement works carried out. Money is provided for the housing aid for older persons scheme, under which grants of up to €8,000 are provided for older people living in poor housing accommodation to have refurbishment or improvement works carried out. The mobility aid grants scheme is also supported from the subhead. It is available to fast-track grants of up to €6,000 to provide for basic works to address mobility problems, including the provision of grips, rails and ramps. I hear what the Deputy is saying about how much of it is lotto money and voted expenditure. I will speak to line Departments to seek greater clarity in the published accounts at the end of the year.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased that the Minister sees the point I am making. I have been following this matter for some time and raised it at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts last week. The Comptroller and Auditor General agreed with my point that there was a lack of traceability and stated he could not trace the money because there was no mechanism in place in some line Departments. Members of the public do not realise that grants for disabled people and the mobility aid grants scheme depend on their playing the lotto. It should not be the case that they are dependent on lottery sales. Now that the Minister has privatised the national lottery, it is important that people know where the proportion of money from the national lottery for good causes is spent. This link has been broken and must be re-established.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We have not privatised the national lottery. After the end of the year it will be run by a consortium which includes An Post, the organisation which has always run it and a prime mover in the consortium. The Deputy is right on the issue of transparency. We need to know where the lotto money is going and this is done. We need to have even more transparency and I am happy to address the issue. We know that all of the money is expended on the right things and we want to generate as big a surplus as we can. This year it will be approximately €200 million, in line with the figure in recent years. We top it up to support specific areas in which very important works are undertaken, particularly in recent years when they were under pressure. Nobody who buys a lotto ticket would begrudge elderly people mobility aid grants, ramps or other aids in being a beneficiary of their taking a punt.