National Lottery Act, 1986

National Lottery Fund.

8.—(1) The Minister shall cause to be established in the Central Bank of Ireland a fund which shall be known as the National Lottery Fund and is referred to in this Act as “the Fund”.

(2) (a) The Fund shall be managed and controlled by the Minister and shall consist of a current account and an investment account.

(b) Moneys payable into the Fund shall be paid into the current account of the Fund and moneys payable out of the Fund shall be paid out of that account.

(c) Moneys standing to the credit of the current account and not required to meet current liabilities of the Fund shall be paid into the investment account of the Fund.

(d) Whenever the moneys in the current account of the Fund are insufficient to meet current liabilities of that account, there shall be paid into that account from the investment account of the Fund such moneys as are necessary to meet those liabilities.

(e) (i) The proceeds of the sale of National Lottery tickets, after deduction therefrom of any remuneration paid to sellers of National Lottery tickets and such amounts, if any, in respect of prizes in the National Lottery as the Minister may authorise, shall be paid into the Fund.

(ii) Payments of remuneration under section 9 of this Act, and amounts in respect of prizes for winning tickets (other than amounts referred to in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph), shall be made out of the current account of the Fund.

(f) (i) Subject to subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph, moneys in the investment account of the Fund that are not required to meet current and prospective liabilities of that account shall be invested and the investments shall be realised or varied from time to time as occasion requires and the proceeds of any such realisation, and any dividends or other payments received in respect of moneys invested under this paragraph, shall be paid into the investment account of the Fund or invested under this paragraph.

(ii) An investment under this paragraph shall be in securities in which trustees are for the time being authorised by law to invest trust funds or in any of the stocks, funds or securities in which moneys of the Post Office Saving Bank are for the time being authorised to be invested.

(iii) (I) At such intervals as the Minister may determine, but not being intervals of more than one year, the Minister shall cause to be remitted from the investment account of the Fund to the Central Fund any surplus moneys in that account after appropriate provision has been made in relation to any current liabilities of the Fund and any prospective or contingent liabilities of the Fund and any prospective or contingent liabilities thereof for which, in the opinion of the Minister, provision should be made out of moneys then in the Fund.

(II) Moneys remitted to the Central Fund under this paragraph shall form part of the Central Fund.

(iv) Payments into and out of the Fund shall be made in accordance with any regulations in relation thereto under section 34 of this Act.

(3) The accounts of the Fund shall be submitted annually to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit and the Minister shall cause a copy of an abstract of the accounts as so audited together with a copy of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General thereon to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.