New Lottery Director Stephen Donnelly Defends Winners Being Put On Waiting List

NEWLY appointed National Lottery non-executive director Stephen Donnelly has defended the decision to place all prize winners on a waiting list, describing the system as “tried, tested and frankly the only way I know how to do anything.”

Donnelly, who served as Minister for Health from 2020 to 2025, during which time Ireland’s hospital waiting lists grew to a record 950,000 people, said he saw no reason why the same model could not be applied to the distribution of lottery prizes.

“Winners will just have to wait like everyone else in this country is waiting for housing, healthcare, a functioning government devoid of scandal, a children’s hospital,” Donnelly told reporters on Tuesday.

Under the new system, lottery winners will be placed on a waiting list according to the size of their prize. Jackpot winners face an estimated wait of 18 to 24 months before they can receive their winnings.

“There’s a serious lack of red tape here at Premier Lotteries, so I’m here to make sure to change all that for the worse,” Donnelly said.

Donnelly also dismissed suggestions that his only value to Premier Lotteries was his government contacts, following the company’s recent complaints about rival betting firms offering odds on lottery outcomes – a complaint that raised eyebrows given that the lottery itself is a gambling product sold openly beside the sweet aisle in every retail store in the country.

“That’s not the reason Premier Lotteries hired me,” Donnelly half-heartedly explained, looking perplexed as if only realising this may actually be the only reason he was hired. “I have many skills to bring to the table, including the cunning ability to quickly shift from one side of the fence to the other. I’m like a chameleon, a ninja, a shapeshifter who can adapt to whatever environment it has been dumped in.”