Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I absolutely accept that. We have asked HRI to look at this from a legal perspective to see what can be done about it. In the context of our own governance of the organisations we have agreed to conduct a governance review. The rules on this should be clear. In the context of State agencies there is a circular that states what CEOs should be paid and this determines their pension arrangements. This is not exactly a State agency. It is a private organisation. In the context of the horseracing Acts it provides a statutory function as a regulatory body. It is one of these atypical bodies. When we introduced the legislation in 2016 we were anxious to improve governance without compromising the independence of the organisation and without compromising the traditions of the sector.

This is a body that is made up of the Irish national hunt club and the Turf Club, with a long history of tradition in providing very good service to the racing sector. There are things we have to look at and we have committed to look into them 100%.