Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for allowing me to contribute. I am not a member of this committee, although the Committee of Public Accounts will on Thursday discuss our work programme for after the summer. This fund is up for discussion, so we will see where we can fit that in after the break.

I will not harp on. I agree with the sentiments expressed by many of the contributors about the disgraceful scenes we saw on RTÉ's programme. I believe in fair play and we need RTÉ to clarify the question about allowing people to appear on the programme, but I think that RTÉ did the public a great service. I acknowledge the work of RTÉ and Mr. Conor Ryan. If ever an industry needed a watershed moment, this was it. I am someone who supports the greyhound industry. I support the many good people, particularly in my county, who are huge lovers of the industry, work hard and do things in the right way.

To save time, I will fire off a list of questions. Instead of engaging in a discussion, maybe the witnesses could take note of them and revert to the committee.

A report was commissioned and a company carried it out for €125,000. What company was that exactly and what similar reports had it carried out? According to the introductory statement, the company in its report also considered an area in respect of which it had not been commissioned. How did that happen, what were the report's terms of reference and was the company paid proportionately for a part of the report that it was never meant to do in the first place?

Surely that €125,000 was €150,000, €160,000 or €170,000. Surely the IGB did not pay for something, on behalf of the taxpayer, that it never asked for in the first place. I have an issue with the fact that this report was never sent to the Department, and that the Department did not receive it until recently, on 24 May. Did anyone in the Department, to the witnesses' knowledge, hear of or see the contents of this report? It is an extremely important question. In a recent parliamentary question, I asked for a list of all meetings between the chair, board members, or executives of Bord na gCon and Ministers or officials from the Department. I will not bore the committee with the full list, because it is public now, but it shows that 14 or 15 meetings were held between the time the report was finished and when the Department received it. In all that time, during those 14 or 15 meetings, nobody from the IGB said they had commissioned this report, which cost €125,000, that it said all of these things and that they were not accepting it. I have no issue with the board not wanting to accept the report, but I have an issue with the IGB spending €125,000 of taxpayers' money and not giving the report to its parent Department over the course of 14 or 15 meetings. That is incredible to me, and that question needs to be asked.

I refer to greyhound exports. Has the IGB ever paid, in any way, for board members to visit China, and if so, for what purpose? When did that happen, who went, and what was the cost?

I ask the witnesses to provide the committee with all funding requests the IGB has received from greyhound welfare organisations in the last three years, and to tell us what was done with them. Do they support the new greyhound adoption strategy recently brought forward in Tipperary?

There are issues with the current structure of the organisation. Does the IGB have a sales and marketing director, or a commercial director? What does the deputy CEO do? How much did it cost to run Bord na gCon in 2018 versus what it cost ten years ago?

I agree with Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan. There is a lot of talk about welfare now because there has to be if we want to save the industry. Where is the funding for the welfare pot going to come from? Is it going to come from breeders, from the IGB's overall budget of €16 million, or from both? Many of the breeders and owners watching this committee tonight want to know that because they are very concerned about the answer to that question.

Finally, the issue of drugs has been raised here before and the case was cited of a dog that tested positive for drugs three times. Dogs that test positive do not race, so how can somebody whose dog tests positive be allowed to remain involved in greyhound racing? When is that going to change? It affects how people think about this industry, to a disheartening and worrying level.