Irish bus drivers lotto syndicate lands them €24m Euro jackpot

The lucky 22 Dublin Bus colleagues will each collect over €1 million each from the €24 million jackpot. Photo / Getty

It will be more than a busman's holiday for 22 lucky colleagues in the Dublin Bus depot in Ireland this week.

The syndicate of workers in the North Dublin garage picked the winning numbers in Friday night's €24 million ($37.3 million) jackpot in the EuroMillions Lottery, netting them around €1,083,866.36 each.

"They're all lovely lads and every one of them deserves it," Dublin Bus chief inspector Tony Carey told the Irish Independent. "I wish them the best because it was a great scoop for them. It will be a big loss if we lose them all," he said with a laugh.

Tony said there are two separate syndicates on the go in the depot, one for management and one for the drivers: "Our day will come too. Hopefully," he said. But in fact the management syndicate of 50 is also celebrating a win in last Wednesday's National Lottery which netted them €134 each.

According to reports only two of the winning drivers are under 50 and most of them have long years of service behind them. There were doubts whether all the drivers would turn up to start their 6am shift on Monday morning (GMT).

One driver turning up for his shift in the adjacent Phibsboro garage on Sunday morning told the Irish Times: "We're all in syndicates. They just happened to win. If I had won the lottery, would I be here?"

The National Lottery agency in Ireland declined to confirm where the ticket was sold and said it will be some time before the location is revealed. They advised the winners to sign their tickets and keep them safe.

It is not the first time the Euromillions jackpot has been won by a player from the Republic. A syndicate involving a group of friends won €66 million in January, the Irish Times reports.

The twelfth highest jackpot in the competition's history was won by Dolores McNamara from Co Limerick when she took home €115 ($178 million), 436,126 in July 2005.
Other winners in Ireland have scooped the jackpot with wins of €94m, €29.4m and €15m.

EuroMillions is played in nine countries - Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.