Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----if there is only one board and in effect there is a monopoly on greyhound racing in Ireland in terms of the provision and running of stadia? We divvy up €16 million a year. When they get into a hole for €20 million, we buy something from the board for €20 million that is worth €12 million. This issue has been before the committee previously. When I asked for the valuation of Bord na gCon on that day, it was also termed "commercially sensitive". The real story was not that it was commercially sensitive; it was that my back of an envelope valuation was closer to Savills' valuation. The Valuation Office was retrofitting a valuation to allow Peter to be robbed to pay Paul, but that is an aside. It is very frustrating when Mr. Gleeson, as manager of the line Department responsible for an organisation to which we divvy up €16 million per year and which has not covered itself in glory in recent times with regard to governance, says that he cannot give the report to the committee because the organisation told the Department it was commercially sensitive. The Department would never have received that report were it not for the substantial questioning of Deputy Alan Kelly through parliamentary questions. Now the Department has the report, Mr. Gleeson has read it and he concurs with Bord na gCon. To paraphrase, I am bound to say they did not want to give the Department anything. Through the actions of other people such as Deputy Alan Kelly, the Department has the report and is backing up the board by saying, "We cannot let this out".