A whopping $72 million (€66m) jackpot won by a lucky Irish punter last weekend has yet to be collected because the lottery company won’t have enough cash for another few days.

The Irish winner shared a $145.5 million (€132m) jackpot in the EuroMillions lottery with a French ticket holder last Friday night.

Dublin lotto chiefs said that because of the huge amount of the win, they were not saying where the Irish ticket was bought, but rumor swept the country that it was purchased in the fishing village of Kilmore Quay, Co. Waterford, population 500.

Ireland’s National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin told RTE that the money still needs to be lodged in his company’s bank account.

He said it has to be collected from other countries and it could be this weekend before it is lodged.

Meanwhile, he said his office had one phone call claiming the prize. He didn’t know if it was a lone winner or a syndicate.

“One person rang the center. Naturally when you become a multimillionaire it takes a bit of getting use to, but we're there to help them and we'll be in contact with them over the next few days,” Griffin said.

“We spoke to one person on the phone, but again it could have been a syndicate or a family syndicate or they could be on their own, we just don't know.

“We congratulated the person in question and we gave them some advice, to sign the back of their ticket and to keep their ticket safe.

“The money still needs to be collected from the other countries. The jackpot is pooled of course, so it will certainly be the end of this week before the money arrives in Ireland and we can pay it out.

“So this person has plenty of time to decide when it suits them to come in and collect the money.”

The latest windfall is Ireland’s eighth major EuroMillions win. The biggest was in 2005, when Limerick woman Dolores McNamara scooped more than $126.8 million (€115m).