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

I will address the issue that Deputy Penrose raised, as it relates to the previous amendment while still being relevant. HRI has a large board with a broad representation. There will be three members from the Turf Club and breeders, owners, trainers, stable staff and the betting industry will be represented. My role as Minister will be to try to fill knowledge gaps or add more to the board. It is a large board, larger than I would have liked. Indecon's recommendation was for something smaller.

Any good board sets up a sub-committee within the board to advise it on certain matters. That is how these situations work. The board, which has a broad representation, sets up a fixtures committee comprising people from that board with appropriate skill sets and tells them to consider fixtures and revert with recommendations. We are not discussing an outside body setting fixtures that needs the approval of HRI. We are discussing HRI board members doing the jobs they are nominated and appointed to do, those being, administering horse racing and providing efficiencies, transparency, accountability and so on. They are answerable for these to the Oireachtas, the Comptroller and Auditor General and elsewhere. Deputy Penrose is right in that a major part of that role is setting fixtures, as these determine much in terms of sponsorship, media rights, when in the season races are run, which has an impact on horses' training profiles, and so on.

It is a contentious area, but I want somebody who is answerable if they make a mistake, so that I get the reasoning behind how we schedule racing and when we put together events like champions weekend and so on. It involves a very significant amount of public money in terms of prize money and so on. I want to be able to talk to the chair of HRI and ask him or her to explain to me the thinking behind various decisions. I want people to understand in a practical sense that HRI, as a board, has responsibility for all these things. One of the big responsibilities it has is race fixtures, because-----