Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Similar to other committee members, I have been very impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the IHRA in my interactions with it. This is why it has had the all-party support of the committee for quite a number of years. That commitment has probably strengthened over time. The concern has been that the IHRA has also won the admiration and support of the international organisation and it receives substantial investment from other states but, unfortunately, this has not been matched by our own. I hope this is about to change significantly.

With regard to the Indecon report, I will zoom in on its fourth recommendation and the issue of State seed funding. It states State seed funding could be provided on a pilot basis and its impacts evaluated before any further funding is considered. This is the key phrase, if we get to the nub of the issue. Obviously, the €50,000 for the integration programme will continue. As Mr. Cooper stated, more than €2 million has been invested by the State. That is a separate issue. It is very important because we had a very detailed exchange with the Minister. I welcome the fact the Minister explicitly stated he supports what the IHRA is trying to do and he acknowledged his confidence in the organisation. It appears to me from everything he said that he supports Indecon's recommendations.

My concern is that he appeared to state the IHRA needed to have a five year plan before it could get any funding outside the €50,000 integration fund. It is very important that the committee locks down this issue today. To be very fair, I am conscious no profit is being made by the IHRA and it is purely about passion and professionalism. We are taking liberties to expect the IHRA to keep doing this and certainly to expect it to implement the very reasonable recommendations, particularly in terms of safeguarding public investment. We know there have been problems with regard to the funding received by other greyhound and horse racing organisations. There have been corporate management issues and we do not want these repeated. These are reasonable recommendations. I welcome the fact the IHRA has totally embraced them, but there is only a certain amount it can do to implement them without seed funding. It is critical that we deal with this today and that the committee continues to ask that the Minister-----