Watchdog says PAC inflated number of complaints in criticism of National Lottery

Sinn Féin TD and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley had in November queried chief executive of the lottery regulator Carol Boate as to whether or not she was “aware that 40% of the complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland this year relate to the national lottery?” File photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Ireland’s advertising regulator has asked that the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to correct the Dáil record after quoting an exaggerated statistic regarding complaints against the National Lottery at a recent committee hearing.

The chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI – the industry’s self-regulating body) Orla Twomey recently wrote to chair of the PAC, Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley, to amend his statement to the lottery’s regulator at a combative November 24 meeting of the committee on foot of Ms Twomey’s “clarification”.