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

The amendment suggests that we should stick with what is there at the moment as opposed to making a change. One of reasons this legislation is being introduced is that we asked Indecon to report on the industry, its structure and its governance, and Indecon made some pretty clear recommendations about the composition of the board. One of those recommendations was to reduce the representation of the racing regulatory body from five to three members and to put in place three public interest board members, one of whom would be a representative of the horse racing industry in Northern Ireland. They would be ministerial appointments. At the moment it is a large board and the only ministerial appointment is the chairman. This composition was felt to be a weakness and not in the public interest. This body spends very large amount of public money - the guts of €60 million per year - and the idea that there would be no one on the board with a public interest role other than the chairman appointed by a Minister was seen as a weakness by Indecon, so it proposed the change. I have had many meetings with the Turf Club. This piece of legislation has allowed an honest discussion and the Turf Club has not been happy with some of the things the Bill is trying to do. There have been a lot of compromises. Not all of Indecon's recommendations have been accepted, but the change to the board nominations is one that will be accepted. The Turf Club has not raised this with me as an issue. It may have raised it with Deputy Ferris but not with me.

We are trying to rebalance the board and ensure that, as a body that manages such a large amount of public money each year, it includes an appropriate number of public interest members, if one likes, one of whom will be from Northern Ireland. I am proposing to make the change recommended by Indecon. While I understand where the Deputy is coming from, the purpose of the Bill is to make changes and improvements, as opposed to maintaining the status quo.