THE setting up of an independent charitable trust to control the distribution of National Lottery funds was sought by the Progressive Democrats in a private member's motion.
The party's spokeswoman on equality and law reform, Ms Helen Keogh, said such a move would depoliticise the process by which decisions were made and would How every application to be looked at on its merits.
The trust would be obliged to distribute all funds equally between four designated areas sport and youth, arts, culture and the Irish language, national heritage and voluntary groups, especially those providing services to the poor, the sick, people with disabilities and older people.
"Over the past 11 years, the lottery's monies have been used as a substitute for deficiencies in Ex-chequer funding of many essential projects and services. Furthermore, it has become a sort of political slush-fund which ministers use to finance pet projects in their constituencies. This is entirely unacceptable. Many legitimate concerns have lost out substantially over the years as a result of the politically arbitrary system which has been allowed to develop."
Ms Keogh said political account ability could be guaranteed by allowing the Minister for Finance to appoint the members of the trust from lists of nominees put forward by designated bodies in sport, youth, culture, heritage and the voluntary sector.
Ms Liz O'Donnell (PD, Dublin South) said the original concept was that the lottery should fund sport. There is a distinct level of discontent across a broad range of the Irish people that sport, rather than being the principal beneficiary, is seen to be only one of many beneficiaries."
The Minister of State for Finance, Ms Avril Doyle, said the lottery had been a success. It had already provided over £700 million for activities such as sport and youth, arts and culture, and had supported initiatives in favour of the health and welfare of the community.
There had been suggestions that it would be preferable to have an independent board which would be charged with deciding the distribution of the Lottery surplus, which would be free from political interference and would make the expenditure of funding more transparent.
"While the concept of an independent board may appear attractive, it would be naive to consider that such a board would find a magic formula to reconcile the demand for and availability of lottery funding. The experience in other jurisdictions shows that taking the decision out of the government arena is no guarantee that dispute and controversies will be avoided."