An independent investigation may be launched into National Lottery errors that saw €180,000 in prizes left out scratch card games.

The lottery operator has apologised after it emerged four top prizes were never included on three of its scratch cards.

The affected cards were ‘Diamond Bingo Doubler,’ which was on sale until February 2017 and two different versions of ‘Congratulations’ – one of which was still in circulation but has now been withdrawn.

In the Dáil this afternoon the Tánaiste Simon Coveney said it's not good enough to put it down to human error.

“I think there are real questions to answer here,” he said.

“I am certainly not against the idea of an independent investigation in terms of how this could have happened because I think the integrity of the lottery system is hugely important given how valuable it is to so many good causes that it funds.”

The National Lottery has put new controls in place to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen again and has promised to make the prizes available to players through a special New Years’ draw.

The special draw will be held on January 6th and will include 180 prizes of €1,000.