Mr. Phil Meaney:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting us here today. Since we last met this committee, much of the focus of the Irish Greyhound Board, IGB, has been on the implementation of the Indecon report. The progress on that project has been detailed in the briefing document submitted last week. Indecon critiqued serious structural issues within the industry and raised questions about the validity of strategic decisions taken at the beginning of the recession. These conclusions were further elaborated in the review by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the Limerick project in particular. It is important to state that Indecon also felt strongly that if the appropriate actions were taken, as laid out in its review, the industry then would have a viable future.

Realising that future will be challenging. The enormous impact of the recession on discretionary consumer spending is obvious. Members of the committee, more than most, are aware of the effects of reductions in income on behaviour and on the spending choices people have been obliged to make. The notion that the greyhound industry could sail unaffected through those waters simply is not tenable. The recession has both caused attendances to plummet and led to many trainers and owners exiting the industry. The period also saw very significant reductions in the Horse and Greyhound Fund, which ran at more than 30% at one point. The capacity of the IGB even to sustain levels of incentive and prize money simply did not exist, partly because of the business hit but also because of the drain on our resources to pay down significant legacy debt. That is the reality and there is no sugar-coating it.

We should not discount how the cumulative consequences of deep cost-cutting within the organisation has affected investment in our facilities and the marketing of our product. The board in 2014 took significant actions to step up commercial performance through a new strategy and more appropriate levels of funding. These will not make an immediate impact as there will be a time lag, but the benefits of the new strategy are beginning to show clearly for 2015. Stadium branding and all marketing materials have been developed and updated. The Tote brand has been updated to fit with the design of the stadium branding. There is a strong digital marketing dimension to all our commercial work. All stadia now have their own web presence, which is linked to www.gogreyhoundracing.ie. The IGB has taken over all the food and beverage operations within its stadia. These operations are now fully integrated in terms of planning and consistency of business objectives. Food and beverage is now a key driver of future attendance and income growth. The profits generated through the new food and beverage arrangements will be retained within the industry. Significant progress has been made on another major issue, namely, the pension deficit, the details of which are to go for member consultation early in the new year. There also has been much work done on the development of new income streams, based largely on significant investment in technological infrastructure, which was hopelessly outdated in terms of market requirements. There are some positives in terms of outturns for the year and the general economic canvass on which this industry operates. A lot has been happening at board level, the benefits of which may not be immediately apparent but which will have significant impact in the medium and long term.