Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the board members for attending. When the Minister appeared before us, he assured us that the questions we had would be more appropriately directed to them. I have no doubt that we will have to call him back because there are still some questions that need to be answered by him. Mr. Keeling said he met the previous chairman on a number of occasions when he was taking over. He said, "Brian Kavanagh was the plan". I do not understand how he could have been the plan when his contract clearly stated that his appointment could not be renewed for a third term. Mr. Keeling said he also did not focus on the legalities. As chairperson of the board, it is his job to focus on the legalities. He also said there was no point going back to the board with this because he knew when he had the board with him. I do not mean to be personal but that is quite an arrogant way of explaining the position. Surely, Mr. Keeling's job was to bring the board with him and to ensure if there were legal issues, he was aware of them and they were addressed. The legal position was Brian Kavanagh was barred from a third term and, therefore, the plan should never been Brian Kavanagh.

The business case, which was talked up a great deal when this issue emerged, turns out be a series of letters and correspondence that went over and back between board members. The Minister said when he appeared that the big part of the business case was the five-year plan for HRI. I have looked through the plan and while I expect the management of the industry is important, the plan does not state that it hinges on any single individual on this planet, let alone Brian Kavanagh. I, therefore, do not understand how he could be the only person that could possibly run this organisation. With the best of good wishes to the man, if something happened to him tomorrow morning, somebody else would have to be found. I do not understand how the board of an organisation in receipt of €60 million in taxpayer's money could act in such a way and expect to get away with it, and then say it had no other plan and it did not focus on the legalities. It is a flippant way of dealing with this issue.

Are many people awaiting reappointment who are not full members of the board? Were they all properly appointed by the organisations that were supposed to have nominated them? This comes back again to proper governance.

HRI is a sporting body. Yesterday evening, Special Olympics Ireland, SOI, was rightly commended by the President at Áras an Uachtaráin. SOI received €1.4 million in 2015 and €1.2 million in 2016 compared to €60 million for HRI. That is a huge issue. In 2015, €53.4 million was awarded in prize money at horse racing meetings and HRI contributed almost €35 million of that. I come from County Leitrim and I know many farmers and ordinary people who are struggling to survive and who have a nag or two. None of them makes it to the winner's enclosure. I expect that the €35 million was won by 20 wealthy individuals. We represent the people here and this represents a huge transfer of public money to the wealthiest in our society and I have an issue with that. As members of the board of a State body, the witnesses should also have an issue with that. Many issues in the horse racing industry need to be addressed but the issue of where all this money is going is one of them.

I have a question for Mr. Moloney. Has HRI just agreed to put €6 million into a champagne bar at Galway racecourse? If so, is that a proper use of taxpayer's money? Does Galway racecourse have other properties at home or aboard? Why should the taxpayer put money into this industry?