Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 189: To ask the Minister for Finance when the National Lottery was established; the reason it was established; the amount of funding collected in 2008 and 2009; the way this funding was allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14635/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Lottery Act 1986 provided for the establishment of the National Lottery. The National Lottery Company was incorporated in September 1986 and commenced trading in March 1987. Section 5 of the National Lottery Act 1986 provided 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.

In order to give effect to this statutory provision, the surplus from the National Lottery is transferred to the Exchequer on a regular basis and is applied each year to part-fund the Exchequer allocations to a specified range of expenditure subheads across various Votes. Details of the amounts transferred and the allocations to the relevant subheads are set out each year in Appendix 1 of the Revised Estimates for Public Services.

In 2008, the amount of National Lottery surplus available and applied to these subheads was €265m (of which €6.42m was carried over from the previous year) and in 2009 the amount was €275m.