The National Lottery has confirmed it will hold a must-win draw this Saturday, after more than seven months without a jackpot winner.
Approval for a must-be-won draw was granted by the Regulator of the National Lottery this week.
The jackpot has not been won since 9 June and has been capped at €19 million since early October.
Additional money, normally allocated to rollover jackpots, instead flowed down to lower prize tiers.
This Saturday, if there is still no winner of the jackpot, it will flow down to the winners in lower tiers. This will likely result in several winners.
National Lottery spokesperson Fran Whearty said that must-win draws will be held in the future to prevent such long rollovers from happening again, explaining that jackpots are "guaranteed to be won no more than five draws after the cap has been reached".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland Mr Whearty urged players to play responsibly at the weekend because they are "as likely to win with one ticket, as with multiple".
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Operator of the National Lottery, Premier Lotteries Ireland, and the Regulator of the National Lottery were brought before the Oireachtas finance committee last December.
Both assured members that there was nothing amiss with the lotto draw and that the jackpot rollover was highly unusual.
Their appearance followed interventions by Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, who described the situation as "unsustainable".
He welcomed the announcement that a must-win draw will be held on 15 January.
