Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the group from the Irish Greyhound Board and I thank them for their contributions. Communications is a two way street and the feedback I am getting from my interaction with the Minister and with the breeders’ federation is that there is no response to issues they are raising with the board on an ongoing basis. This is the board’s opportunity to respond to that. The greyhound racing industry will only be saved by everybody pulling together. If we pull in different directions, then the industry is finished. At the moment it is on life support - let us be honest about it - and without the intervention of Government finance, it would be dead. We need to put it back together and we need to communicate.

Will the board co-operate in terms of having meetings with the federation or will we be required to put that on a statutory footing, because that is what we will do? I do not want to have to do that. I want the board to sit down - not an adjunct, or a sub-committee, of the board - as equals with the federation to discuss the issues we have gone though at this committee. The board was here for the contributions, so it knows the issues I have.

I refer to the contracts in regard to streaming, Carol and William Hill. I watch dog racing and horse racing online every chance I get, although I have no interest in a lot of it because it is not competitive. I have it fixed in my head that it is all a set-up, so there is no point in having a bet on it. I do not want to include Irish greyhound racing in that. Streaming greyhound racing online is not, in itself, a panacea or an opportunity for the industry to make a profit unless people participate. What deal has the Irish Greyhound Board done? Is it based on participation or just on providing this service? The streaming of the races can be shown to whoever one likes and it can be on every screen in every betting office in Ireland, but if people are not having a punt on it and if the industry is not getting anything out of it, then it is not worth a hat of crabs.