Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

There is good news locally for Deputy Cahill. Clonmel is about to start a redevelopment project on its weigh room building, which we will support. There is no question that the all-weather track will be done at the expense of other racecourses. In the capital grant scheme, and this is unique among sports capital grants, we only put up 40% of the funding on behalf of the Government. For many other sports capital grants, 80% to 100% of the funding is provided. We try to leverage the racecourse to invest its own money. As Senator Paul Daly knows, we work with the racecourses in terms of driving the racecourse to provide 60% of the funding. We try to work with the racecourse on strict grant guidelines so the racecourse is not put in financial difficulty or does not over-stretch itself. There are plenty of schemes available for the other tracks. Some are more inclined to use them than others because it depends on their local financial position.

The chairman spoke about the second all-weather track and I will make a couple of other points. There is a significant demand for further all-weather racing, not just from the horse racing population but also from the betting industry. Internationally, it wants a consistent product on a fixed night at a fixed time with a standard number of runners. Globally, the value in international betting on Irish racing is more in flat racing because there is no real culture of jump racing outside Britain, France and Ireland. People want good flat racing. Ireland is behind the curve relative to Britain and France. France has nine or ten all-weather tracks and Britain has seven. Ireland has one. To an extent, in the business case for an all-weather track there is an element of self-financing it because there is a demand from the television companies and the betting companies will pay for media rights for the all-weather racing, which will cover much of the cost of the prize money.