Lottery director to resign after 18 years in job

The director of the National Lottery, Ray Bates, is to resign from the position after 18 years.

Mr Bates (58), who received total pay of €244,000 in 2004, said he had decided to leave as "the moment feels right".

He said he will take time off to get used to not being so busy, and then will look at some business and personal projects.

Dermot Griffin, chief operating officer with the National Lottery, will be appointed director in early 2006 when Mr Bates leaves. Mr Griffin was appointed to his current position following an open competition and was selected to replace Mr Bates by the lottery board.

The chairman of An Post National Lottery Company, Donal Curtin, said he wished to thank Mr Bates for his efforts in directing the National Lottery to great effect. "Ray led a team that has grown the National Lottery into a €600 million business. As a result of his management efforts, and the contributions of Irish players, over €2.3 billion has been raised for good causes."

Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said: "On behalf of the Government I would like to thank Ray for his stellar efforts and wish him well in the future."

Mr Bates said that while the introduction of EuroMillions had affected some of the lottery's other games, the net effect was positive and the overall effect was that this year would see record sales. EuroMillions was generating more money than had been expected.

He said he had enjoyed his time as director. "It is a most amazing job. We are in the entertainment business and our product is dreams. That sounds like a cliché but it's true. The dream aspect is what we sell."

He said an enjoyable aspect of the job was that he got to share what for many people was one of the greatest moments in their lives.

He said the EuroMillions cheque given to Dolores McNamara, who won €115.43 million, was the largest lottery cheque ever written anywhere in the world. There had been larger lottery payouts but they had been paid in tranches.

However presenting people with smaller cheques, for a few million or a few hundred thousand euro, was also a joy. Many became "emotionally overwhelmed". He said it never struck him to feel envious.