John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am acting on behalf of the Minister for Finance who has responsibility for the national lottery, but I want be helpful by way of giving a response. Section 5 of the National Lottery Act 1986 provides that the surplus from the national lottery may be used for the following purposes: sport and other recreation, national culture, including the Irish language, the arts within the meaning of the Arts Act 1951, the health of the community, and for such other purposes as the Government may determine. The following additional categories have been so determined: youth, welfare, national heritage and amenities. To give effect to this statutory provision, I understand the surplus from the national lottery is transferred to the Exchequer regularly and is applied each year to part-fund the Exchequer allocations to a specified range of expenditure subheads across various Votes. Each year, the amount transferred to the Exchequer from the national lottery surplus, together with details of the total Exchequer allocations to the relevant subheads, are set out in Appendix 1 of the annual Revised Estimates for Public Services.

The elements of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport Vote which are part-funded by proceeds of the national lottery are as follows: subhead C1 - grants for sporting bodies and for the provision of sports and recreational facilities under the sports capital programme; subhead C3 - grant-in-aid provided to the Irish Sports Council in respect of general assistance to sports organisations and expenditure on sports activities; and subhead D7 - grant-in-aid allocation provided to the Arts Council. In 2010, €48 million has been allocated for subhead C1, €49.572 million for subhead C3 and €69.15 million for subhead D7.

On subhead C1, the sports capital programme is the primary means of granting Government support for the provision of sports facilities at national, regional and local levels. Under the programme, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport allocates funding to voluntary, sporting and community organisations for the provision of sports and recreational facilities. More than 7,400 projects have benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to more than €738 million. The programme has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland in the past ten years with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in every part of the country. The facilities funded range from the smallest clubs to national centres of sporting excellence and provide an opportunity for participation in sport which leads to healthier lifestyles and a reduced likelihood of young people drifting into anti-social behaviour.

Another of the elements of the Department's Vote which is part funded by the proceeds of the national lottery is subhead C3 - grant-in-aid provided to the Irish Sports Council, ISC, in respect of general assistance to sports organisations and expenditure on sports activities. The ISC was established on a statutory basis on 1 July 1999, and the functions of the council are outlined in section 6 of the Irish Sports Council Act 1999. The key functions are encouraging the promotion, development and co-ordination of competitive sport, developing strategies for increasing participation in recreational sport and co-ordinating their implementation by all Irish bodies involved in promoting recreational sport and providing recreational sport facilities, facilitating good standards of conduct and fair play in both competitive and recreational sport, combating doping in sport, initiating and encouraging research concerning competitive or recreational sport, and facilitating research and disseminating information concerning competitive or recreational sport.

The third element of the Department's vote which is part funded by the proceeds of the national lottery is subhead D7 - grant-in-aid allocation provided to the Arts Council. The Arts Council of Ireland, working within the framework of the Arts Acts 1951-2003, is the Government agency for developing the arts. The council works in partnership with artists, arts organisations, public policymakers and others to build a central place for the arts in Irish life. Arts Council funding is distributed across a myriad of activities to include various art forms such as dance, music, theatre, literature and architecture, and programmes, venues, events, once-off projects, organisations, individuals and partnerships with, for example, health, education, local authorities and Departments. Policy initiatives undertaken by the council included a traditional arts policy, opera initiative, festivals scheme, a pilot community music scheme and the provision of capital to assist regional arts centres to upgrade their facilities to participate in the council's touring initiative.

This has been a long-winded response and I hope Senator Buttimer got some information from it.