Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I am delighted to see investment in the equine centre in Johnstown is under consideration. The centre is a world-class leader with regard to both equine research and forensics. It is extremely important that the trustworthiness of the industry is upheld.

In Mr. Hartery's opening statement he mentioned he is chair of CRH and the Musgrave Group, is on the board of a Canadian company and has his own company. Will he have time for this role? In the past, there were issues around chairmen of boards not putting sufficient time into the boards, and this had consequences.

Is Mr. Hartery advocating an increase in betting tax and, if so, is he seeking support for such an increase?

Those of us who regularly go to the races will notice the dominance of a small number of trainers in certain parts of flat racing and also in the national hunt. That is not their fault, but many people are leaving the industry because they do not get sufficient returns, especially on the training side. Does Mr. Hartery expect the industry to be able to galvanise support to increase the returns for those who are in difficulty and those at the lower end of the scale? The more trainers the industry loses, the worse it will be because it will be more centralised with only a few trainers. We would like a broad spectrum of trainers across the country in various counties. There are trainers along the western seaboard too.

I thank Deputy Cahill for letting me speak before him.