Mr. Adrian Neilan:

The Minister is very supportive of the industry overall and how it will move forward. More importantly, we recognise that we must generate more returns from our assets. We have a vibrant greyhound industry in Ireland. Across the world, the total for horseracing tote betting is approximately €100 billion. Governments all over the world are looking for new ways of raising taxes to balance their current accounts. One way of doing that is to regularise gaming. Many Irish-based companies are seeking licences in other jurisdictions and on the back of securing licences, they will require content. Looking at any of the high street bookmakers, greyhound racing accounts for approximately 16% of turnover. We are in the fantastic position of having the best breeding, stadiums, tote infrastructure and IT investment in the world in our product to allow those betting companies to earn a margin.

We have already demonstrated that we have delivered over €800,000 in net profits already, just from selling our product abroad. We will announce a big deal at the end of this month, which will bring our product in front of 4 million customers. If we assume that 10% of those - 400,000 - will place a bet of €10, that is €4 million. We will earn from 6% to 7% net on that margin. Therefore, we are talking about €320,000 on one €10 bet by 400,000 people. If that is repeated by seven or eight bets, the return to the greyhound industry will be significant.

To be fair, the badge that comes with being an Irish Government body is a significant badge. People are happy to deal with us because of our reputation and standing. We believe, based on the reaction we are getting at shows we participate in, that people want a partner such as the Irish greyhound industry in the future. This will develop product sales for us. It will also develop marketing sales, because as we beam our pictures on the Internet, our wall space and back space become more valuable. People will want to put up advertising on our wall. Therefore, as our pools become more liquid, this will allow people who are typically fixed odds betters bet directly with us on our tote book. We are confident that in these two areas alone, the industry is well worth supporting.