Wednesday 22 January 2014 15.04 Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that he was surprised to learn that Rehab made profits of less than €9,500 on scratch cards sales.
Speaking at the opening of an air finance conference in Dublin this morning, Mr Kenny said he did not want to go into further detail as court proceedings are under way in the case.
However, he said he is hopeful a new charities regulator will bring about transparency.
He added that the introduction of a regulator will bring about greater public trust.
Mr Kenny said the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has made it clear that all charities will be analysed and will be called before the committee.
He said they will be treated in the same fashion - "fully answerable, fully transparent".
In response, Rehab said charitable lotteries return detailed information to Government every year.
"It is quite disingenuous for any person in Government to express surprise or shock at the performance of any charity lottery," it said.
Rehab contends the compensation scheme for charity lotteries was established following the establishment of the National Lottery and the imposition of a cap on the prize fund of private lotteries.
It said profits of charity lotteries have been significantly affected because of "unfair competition" from the National Lottery.
Earlier, it called on Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to withdraw remarks made in the Dáil yesterday regarding the funds received by Rehab Lotteries.
Mr Shatter said he was winding down the lottery scheme as he no longer believed it was "fit for purpose".
In a statement, Rehab said it was surprised Mr Shatter made comments on matters which it considers to be sub judice, and asked him to withdraw the remarks and apologise.
An audit of funds received by Rehab Lotteries shows that scratch card sales of almost €4 million yielded a profit of just over €9,400.
The audit was carried out by the Department of Justice.
Rehab says Shatter acted 'improperly'
Rehab said the minister was acting improperly in commenting on two cases before the court and said the information he provided was misleading.
In his speech to the Dáil yesterday, Mr Shatter said that there were two cases before the High Court in relation to the Charitable Lotteries Scheme.
He said he did "not wish to say anything that will create any difficulty for the Judges of the High Court in determining these matters".
However, the minister added the matters were, in the context of the court proceedings, already in the public domain and were directly related to "the question of the transparent use of donated funds by charities".
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has called on Rehab to explain the profits made from the sale of its charity lottery scratch cards.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said the audit showed that in 2010 for every €4 in sales, just one cent was returned to the charity.
"Whenever somebody buys a ticket from anybody you presume the vast majority of that profit is going to those who need it.
"You don't presume it's going to others. Rehab may have a very good explanation for it but we need to hear it and we need to hear it as soon as possible", he said.
Rehab and CRC operate shared lotteries
Rehab and the Central Remedial Clinic operate shared lotteries which generate receipts of around €3.8m a year.
The profits are split evenly between the two organisations and the beneficiaries are the CRC, Rehab and the Mater Hospital.
The vehicle for the lotteries is a registered charity, The Care Trust Limited, which was set up in 1974. Its last filed accounts were approved in March 2013 by directors Paul Kiely, then of the CRC, and Liam Hogan for Rehab.
The trust runs draws for cash prizes and cars.
The Government has a weekly €20,000 prize fund cap on charity lotteries, an issue which was the subject of a High Court case last year involving Rehab and the State, with judgment pending.
The last audited accounts for The Care Trust Limited are for the end of December 2012 and show that lottery receipts have fallen in recent years.
In 2011, the receipts from draws amounted to over €4.2m.
Other directors of The Care Trust Limited still listed at the Companies Registration Office are former CRC chairmen James Nugent and Hamilton Goulding.
PAC will get to bottom of Rehab issue - Fleming
A member of the Public Accounts Committee has said it will get to the bottom of the Rehab lottery controversy.
Fianna Fáil's Sean Fleming said that on the face of it the percentage margin made by the Rehab lottery is a ridiculous situation and the charity should explain its cost structure.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Fleming called for all details to be made fully available to the PAC.
He said Rehab is a charity that received millions of euro of taxpayers' money and the Health Service Executive should have been monitoring it.
However, he said the decision to close the charitable lottery fund is an inevitable consequence of the decision to privatise the national lottery.
Mr Fleming said this decision would impact negatively on a number of charities, but those charities that meet certain standards should continue to receive contributions.
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