Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the Revised Estimates that are published, the Senator will see the expenditure that is funded by the national lottery under every subhead. Could it be applied for some reason? I suppose there is no prohibition on it, if there were some crisis in health funding for the elderly, for example, where we might all agree this is what should be done, particularly given that we have lived through a crisis period. There are rational decisions that can be made at the time. However, if it is not one of the items listed here, we would have to change the law. If it is one of the listed items, it needs to capture the spirit of what is intended. There is transparent publication of where the money is going, so there would be a debate if the allocation of money was deemed to be inappropriate.