A total of €351m was spent on new Prize Bonds last year, according to the Prize Bond Company.
This was a fall on sales of €489m in 2023, and was well down on the figure from 2022, when €615m in new Prize Bonds were sold.
Consumer advocate Brendan Burgess said the bonds are not a suitable long-term investment.
The value of the Prize Bonds fund at the end of last year was €4.46bn, also down on previous years.
There were 386,307 Prize Bonds sold last year, a fall of 27pc on the previous year.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages the Prize Bond draws, says on its website the prize fund amounts to 1pc of the fund.
Mr Burgess, founder of the Askaboutmoney.com website, said this was a poor return.
Britain’s equivalent, called Premium Bonds, have a prize fund of 3.5pc.
However, the central bank there has a higher deposit rate than the European Central Bank.
Some finance experts claim that buying Prize Bonds means forgoing interest and essentially buying a raffle ticket.
The Prize Bond Company, which sells and markets the bonds on behalf of the NTMA, said the monetary value of prizes was €45.6m last year, an increase of 89pc in the financial year.
Mr Burgess said this means the return was a tax-free 1pc.
He said this was better than can be earned on a current account. “But with inflation well in excess of 1pc, these people lost money in real terms,” he said.
He said he was he was amazed at the number of people who die with large sums of money in Prize Bonds for years.
“They are not a suitable long-term investment. For a long-term investment, people should be in a diversified portfolio of shares,” Mr Burgess said.
Four years ago, the Prize Bond Company controversially scrapped the €1m top prize.
It was replaced with a monthly jackpot of €500,000, and a string of smaller prizes.
There were 475,102 prizes awarded last year, with a total value of €45.6m, the Prize Bond Company said.
“Currently, over 8,500 prizes are awarded weekly, with a weekly jackpot prize valued at €50,000, and in addition a jackpot prize of €500,000 in the last weekly draw each month,” it said.
Chairperson of the Prize Bond Company, Debbie Byrne, said there has been a big shift by consumers to buying Prize Bonds online.
A quarter of all Prize Bond sales last year were generated online, compared with 21pc in 2023.
Ms Byrne said the €351m in sales last year reflected continued customer confidence in Prize Bonds “as a unique retail savings product”.
She said the number of prizes issued increased by 53pc last year, along with an increase of 89pc to the value of these prizes.
“The opportunity to win prizes remains a defining feature of the Prize Bonds product and part of its enduring popularity,” she said.
The Prize Bond Company is a joint venture between An Post and Fexco. It administers the Prize Bond scheme under a contract from the NTMA.
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