Vol. 443 No. 6
2 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Finance the proposals, if any, he has to review the overall system of allocation of national lottery funds through either issuing block grant funds on an equitable regional breakdown throughout the country through local authorities or directly to community groups; the total level of allocations that have been or will be made by Government Ministers in 1994; and the proportion this is of the total fund.
Under section 5 of the National Lottery Act, 1986, the Government decides on the allocation of national lottery funds for the various beneficiary categories. These decisions are made in the course of the annual Estimates process. As Minister for Finance, while I have overall responsibility for the operation of the national lottery, once the allocations have been made by Government, the disbursement of those funds is a matter for the relevant spending Minister. I have no proposals for change in the present system for allocation of lottery funds.
The 1994 allocations amount to £93,330,000 and are summarised in an appendix to the Revised Estimates for Public Services volume, with further details being provided under the relevant subheads of each Department's vote. In addition, the Government has approved national lottery funding of £150,000 towards the costs of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest and £78,500 as a contribution to the "People in Need" Telethon. These payments will be administered by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht and the Minister for Social Welfare respectively. Supplementary Estimates for the relevant amounts will be moved in due course. Accordingly, total allocations for 1994 amount to £93,558,500. As regards the proportion which this represents of the total fund, I presume the Deputy means the proportion of overall lottery sales. In this regard the national lottery surplus returned to the Exchequer in 1993 represented approximately 32 per cent of total turnover. This is the best indication available for the current year.
The Minister wrongly interpreted my question. I am getting at the political patronage still associated with the allocation of lottery funds. Is the Minister aware that, in the course of the last election, his new-found partners in Government, the Labour Party, promised to change the method of allocation of lottery funds, specifically saying that they would put trust back into politics and justice back into economics? Will the Minister say if there has been any change in the allocation of lottery funds under this Government when up and down the country there remains disgraceful patronage in their allocation? Will he consider the proposal in my question, to allocate the money on block grant to local authorities so local councillors can decide a fair and equitable basis of dividing it locally?
This is a matter for whatever Department allocates the money. Most of the money is allocated to the arts, sports and the health services, which three categories absorb most of it. There is something in what the Deputy said about tightening up the procedures because, as we know, the Comptroller and Auditor General prepared a report on some difficulties that arose last year and, in addition, recommended some amendments in the mandate of the Committee of Public Accounts. We are examining, as we always do, the interim report of the Committee of Public Accounts.
In relation to the other matter, the Comptroller and Auditor General recently examined the sports share of lottery funds, following his examination of the health share and made some suggestions, but, by and large he found the system operated efficiently. The requirement of a few years ago of asking local authorities to submit thousands of applications, when there was very little money available for distribution, was very unfair to councillors.
Has the Minister not been a dab hand at allocating money to his constituency?
Unfortunately, the difficulty confronting a Minister for Finance is that as he is responsible for all the money and to distribute it among other Ministers he cannot get his hands on it. Incidentally, Croke Park is not in my constituency.
I accept that but nonetheless the Minister is getting the full benefit for that politically.
I thought it was a disadvantage.
