National Lottery ticket terminals crashed this afternoon for the third time since the beginning of February.

A spokeswoman for the National Lottery confirmed that a number of terminals across the network experienced technical issues for a period of about 40 minutes this afternoon.

She said the network crashed at 2.20pm but that all services had resumed by 3pm and any technical issues had been resolved.

The Lotto was last month forced to defer a weekly jackpot draw for the first time in its 28-year history when technical problems crashed ticket terminals across the country.

Up to 3,500 terminals, equating to 95 per cent of the network, went out of commission for several hours as a result of the incident on February 3rd.

The Lotto's new private operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), blamed the problems on a service outage at its telecoms provider Telefónica.

Oireachtas committee

PLI has been called to appear before the Oireachtas finance committee following the recent systems crash and ongoing controversy over its new ticket terminals, with retailers claiming the new terminals are plagued with technical glitches.

The group has been criticised over the introduction of the new technology, which retailers claim is damaging sales and undermining service levels .

Meanwhile, the winner of a Lotto ticket worth almost €3 million failed to come forward last week to collect their prize.

Winners of the National Lottery have 90-days to claim their money and the ticket, bought in Co Mayo last November, had a deadline of 5.30pm last Friday.

The €3 quick pick was purchased in Tesco, Claremorris, and would have netted its owner €2.9 million.

The money will now go back into the National Lottery coffers, where it will be used for marketing and good causes.