THE National Lottery has confirmed that the £2 million winning jackpot from two weeks ago, which is at the centre of a man's claim that he lost the winning ticket on Achill Island, has not been collected.
Mr Padraig O Tuarisc, a freelance actor from Spiddal, Co Galway, claims that he may have lost the winning "Quick Pick" ticket, bought in the Spar supermarket in Keel, Achill, while holidaying with his American girlfriend, Ms Michelle Conway.
But a Lottery spokeswoman said four other Quick Pick tickets had also been bought in the store that Tuesday evening. "It could well be that this person in Galway had bought the ticket or it could be that another winner has the ticket and is lying low," she said.
Mr O Tuarisc says he thinks his ticket may contain the winning numbers and may have been among rubbish thrown out when he emptied the pockets of his wet clothes after a walk.
When the couple returned to the hostel in Keel where they had stayed, on August 31st, the rubbish had been taken to the dump. A search of the tip head at Newport, Co Mayo, failed to turn up any sign of the ticket.
Local people and visitors have descended on Croaghaun Mountain in the hope of finding the ticket, although it now seems likely that the search will shift to Newport tiphead.