Ms Brenda Powderly:

It is in connection with Harolds Cross:

Harolds Cross is one of the top greyhound tracks in the country. To suggest closing this facility makes absolutely no sense at all. In fact, the figures for the first quarter in Harolds Cross indicate an increase of 22%. A lot of charities, football clubs and GAA clubs will suffer too, as they will no longer be able to hold charity nights to help raise funds to keep their respective clubs going. Harolds Cross has raised millions of euro over the years for these people - a huge contribution to the economy. Harolds Cross is the only Dublin owners track. Everybody thinks Dublin has two tracks and, therefore, it does not need to have two, but the fact is Shelbourne Park is located in Dublin but this track is the Irish greyhound stadium for all top class greyhounds and currently does not facilitate the lower class of greyhound that is running at Harolds Cross. I would also like to point out that Dublin is not the only county with two tracks. Cork also has two, Curraheen and Youghal, and one of these tracks is allegedly losing money. Tipperary also has two trackers, Thurles and Clonmel, both of which, I am led to believe, are losing money. As stated at the outset, the suggestion to close the facility at Harolds Cross makes no sense at all.