Updated at 10.24am.
MINISTER LEO VARADKAR has said that Rehab Lottery were ‘using the system’ to maximise their profit.
He added that while it was not for him to advise on the restructuring of a company, but he believes that the Rehab Group can not continue operating as both a commercial and charitable organisation.
“I don’t think you can ride those two horses forever”, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
The Transport Minister said that the charity’s defence to making €9,000 profit from €4 million worth of scratch cards was a reasonable one.
“When the National Lottery was brought in, this was the system used to compensate lotteries that had been in existence before then”, he said.
‘Virtually no money’
“The only reason these charities ran in the lottery business was because of this compensation fund, and to me it wasn’t a good set-up, that you would sell lottery tickets [and] make virtually no money out of it”.
Your local GAA lottery wouldn’t work like this.
He also defended his party colleague Minister Alan Shatter, who is facing calls from Rehab Group to withdraw his comments over their profits made on Tuesday night, saying he was ‘doing the right thing’.
Varadkar added he expects the salary of Rehab Group CEO Angela Kerins to be disclosed either in the coming days or weeks, noting that it was standard business practice to publish these details in annual accounts.
On the same programme, the Transport Minister announced €332 million in funding to local authorities for local road repairs and improvement.
“There will be one or two new roads”, he said, “but the focus will be on maintenance, repair, and strengthening.”
Penalty points
He also spoke to Newstalk Breakfast on the topic of penalty points, saying that it is “almost certainly the case” that some Gardaí abused the system:
We even know it from the Gardaí’s own reports.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is appearing before the Public Accounts Committee to face questions on the controversy.
“The best way that the Gardaí can protect the reputation of the force is to be transparent and upfront… about any abuse of the penalty points system,” he said.
Originally published 9.53am.
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