Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unlike Deputy Heydon, I avoided taking the political bait. People just need to consider the records of different Governments in respect of these issues. The important issue is that we should ignore what happened in the past and instead consider what now constitutes value for money. We must ask whether this is a good way to spend €54 million in the context of all of the pressures faced by the Exchequer, the Government and the country. In my view, it is a good way to spend €54 million. What is proposed constitutes good value for money. We are supporting a sector that does an phenomenal job in terms of maintaining its competitive position internationally. The latter is particularly the case in respect of horse racing. The greyhound industry has a huge impact across large parts of rural Ireland, which would not be the case if we did not fund an infrastructure which allows the industry to maintain its presence in these areas.

The funding that comes back to the Exchequer from this industry is multiples of what we put into it. Therefore, on a whole series of measurements, this represents good value for money.

However, we need to improve a number of elements. I agree with the member that the fact that the horse racing industry and greyhound industry have to wait each year to see what the Government decision will be on the horse and greyhound racing fund in the hope that it will get through committee and be approved and that the industries will not have to take the dramatic cuts that they took a few years ago creates uncertainty around developing the industries. When we examine the legislation in this area, which I hope will be published before Christmas, we will discuss the issue that we would require the Horse Racing Ireland and Bord na gCon to have a multi-annual three year or five year investment-development plan for those industries. In that way we would have an idea the direction in which they are going in two or three years time rather than considering this as an annual investment plan year after year. I would like to have a position where we could fund them on a multi-annual basis and give a three year commitment but I do not believe that will be possible in terms of how the Exchequer and budgetary system work. It would be very difficult.

The next best thing, from a legislative point of view, is to require that in order for them to draw down funds on annual basis they would have a rolling development plan - at least a three year one - in place whereby at any point in time we could ask the head of the Horse Racing Ireland or the head of Bord na gCon where do they want to be in three years time, how they will get there and what they will be investing in for the three years. In that way we would constantly force a planning process that is a multi-annual based planning one rather than a year on year investment programme. That legislation, which will be published soon, has been virtually ready for quite some time but we wanted to introduce it at the same time as the online betting legislation in order that they would come forward together.

The legislation is required for some of the structural change we are seeking to make to Horse Racing Ireland, particularly in terms of its board make-up and the relationship between the Turf Club and Horse Racing Ireland to ensure that we are not duplicating expenditure there. That process is proving to be somewhat frustrating in terms of finalising the agreements between Horse Racing Ireland and the Turf Club on who does what and where, how people spend money and ensuring there is transparency in how money is spent. If we cannot get agreement on that area, I will legislate for it. Let people be in no doubt about this, this is not a process that I am going to allow continue indefinitely. Either we get an agreement between the Turf Club and Horse Racing Ireland on all matters in regard to funding and restructuring on the basis of the recommendations in the Indecon report and the subsequent negotiations which, in my view, have been very fair in terms of the proposed outcomes, or I, as the Minister, will be forced to bring those discussions to a conclusion, but I would much rather a negotiated outcome that everybody considers is fair.

On Deputy Penrose's point, Bord na gCon does not have a significant capital investment programme planned for the next few years. It has spent a good deal of money in recent years upgrading greyhound tracks and has done a good job in terms of the vast majority of those tracks. Anyone who goes greyhound racing in virtually any part of the country will now have a top class facility. The focus in Bord na gCon will be to reduce its borrowings over the next few years. It has come close to its borrowing ceiling and it is anxious to reduce its borrowing. We would encourage it to do that while at the same time making necessary capital investments to make sure that its infrastructure is maintained. We will have a more informed view on that when we get the independent review at the end of March. We will act on that review quite quickly in the same way as we did that we did on the Indecon report. The Minister charged with responsibility for the greyhound industry is the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes. When we got the Indecon report we put an implementation committee in place that involved all the stakeholders and, I suspect, we will do something similar when we get this review, but I do not want to commit to that exact structure because, ultimately, that will be decision of the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, but, I suspect, I will have an input into it.

On Deputy Deering's questions, there are ambitions to try to internationalise the greyhound industry to a certain extent. It probably does not have the potential in that respect as horse racing because there is not as widespread an international industry in greyhounds as there is in horses but certainly there are opportunities. There are countries that want to develop a greyhound racing industry of which we can be a part. We need to be careful in terms of where and with who we partner but the industry is examining the opportunities in that area.

A recent example of a foreign investment in Irish bloodstock occurred as recently as the past few days when Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani, who has significant interests in the racing industry in Ireland, bought 13 mares but interestingly they came from nine different farms. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of euro in terms of spend in that sale that was managed in Kildare. This is an Irish industry selling horses through Irish infrastructure that have been bred and fed on Irish farms and, in some cases, trained in Irish facilities. We have something that is very special internationally, particularly in terms of horse racing, the value of which perhaps many people do not realise. They would only realise it if we lost it but we will not allow that to happen.

I appreciate the comments and the constructive criticism because we need to question ourselves in terms of how we spend the €54 million involved which is a great deal of money. We need proper scrutiny of it and hard questions need to be asked but we have answers to them.