Lottery licence sale brings transparency

It looks like a case of back to the future for the National Lottery. While the Government’s coffers will benefit by over €400m from the sale of the National Lottery licence, half of it is to be ring-fenced for the construction of the National Children’s Hospital.

A similar purpose was behind the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes, established in the 1930s to fund hospitals and medical services, again in an era of austerity. The Adelaide Hospital in Dublin was the only hospital at the time not to accept money from the Hospitals Trust, as the governors disapproved of sweepstakes. No such rejection is anticipated this time.

While accusations of political stroke-pulling may be levelled, this decision at least brings some transparency to the allocation of funds from the Lottery which has, in the past, suffered far too much opacity in this regard.