Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 135: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of money collected by the national lottery for the lotto draw on 14 April 2010 which had a jackpot of €16.7 million; if he is committed to using lottery funding to help fund important projects and initiatives around the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16534/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The sales of Lotto and Lotto plus for the draw of 14 April 2010 and for the entire roll-over sequence, which began on 10th March 2010, was €60.7 million. 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.