Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Horse Racing Ireland Bill 2015: Committee Stage

10:00 am

Photo of Willie PenroseWillie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister read through this section, spoke about advising the board and finalising the work on the race fixtures committee. While that is grand, I do not understand why the membership of the race fixtures committee should be limited to members of HRI. Section 19(3) of the 1994 Act reads, "The membership of the race fixtures committee referred to in paragraphs (b)to (d)of subsection (2)may include persons who are not members of the Authority." Deputy Ferris has tabled a worthwhile amendment on this important matter. We must reflect upon it. The committee will have a limited gene pool. The Association of Irish Racehorse Owners, AIRO, will have members on the HRI board, so they could be on everything, including the race fixtures committee. The association could have two, three, four or five people involved. They have a good level of expertise across various areas, so there would be a lot of work involved.

In July 2014 or whenever it was, we had a good debate and I did not believe that the Minister would propose this provision. Currently, owners are represented on the race fixtures committee. I do not understand why their involvement is being limited to only one person. What if they want to put forward someone else who has relevant expertise? There is much involved in the race fixtures committee and it is not as simple as the Minister claims. I have seen some stuff coming from HRI to the small racecourses that I was not impressed by. I will discuss that with the Minister.

Demands are being made everywhere, for example, for a great deal of money. My main crib with HRI is that the State is providing it with money, the guts of €60 million. That is grand, well done and we are getting good value for it, but HRI is not very good at raising its own money. It raises money from racetracks. According to letters I have received, if a course does not have €3,500 in sponsorship for a race, it will be moved out of prime time. I take grave umbrage at this type of language.

Be that as it may, this is why the section is important. The race fixtures committee deals with the eligibility of horses that run in races. This provision is too restrictive. Racehorse owners used to have two representatives on that committee. It has always been an active and vibrant committee. Anyone selected to it has the necessary expertise. People would not be members otherwise. It has many functions in terms of performance criteria at racecourses and so forth. I would like to think that the committee's membership would not just be confined to the HRI board and that if someone wanted to nominate someone else in his or her stead who had the expertise, it would be allowed.

I am raising this matter now because I failed to table an amendment to that effect, although I wanted to. I concentrated so much on media rights that I nearly forgot this. The Minister should consider this amendment. There is nothing to be lost. It would not be earth shattering in terms of the overall structure. We should not confine committee membership to HRI. Board members would deal with everything then. Deputy Ferris was right in that there will never be any disagreement. The board members are on the committee that sends a matter back to the board. Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi, that is grand and away we go. We should widen the membership and not be afraid of the additional expertise of, for example, the owners.

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