Updated 1.58pm

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY says that Lotto machines are back up and running after a fault that saw the system fail as tonight’s prize heads for a €12 million jackpot.

The National Lottery says that they experienced some technical difficulties this morning but that retail sales resumed at about 12.45pm this afternoon.

The National Lottery’s website took longer to return but is now back online.

Problems with the National Lottery’s system caused a draw to be cancelled last year and a new system was put in place to prevent future problems.

There are no details yet about the cause of the issue that ceased sales for a period today. 

Tonight’s jackpot is expected to be in the region of €12 million after over two months of rollovers. The last jackpot was won on 18 November 2015.

Tonight’s estimated jackpot will be the biggest prize in the main lotto draw since June 2014.

Read: As the Lotto heads towards €10m, there’s a billion dollar jackpot in the US >

Read: There’s a tasty prize for tonight’s Lotto after eight weeks of rollovers >