Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I want to tell the Minister that I am a native of county Kildare. I very much support racing, which is really important, and I support the Minister's proposal. When one looks at a great racecourse like Leopardstown, which HRI fully owns, we would not have that wonderful world stage today if it were not in the care of a body like the HRI.

I live not too far away from Leopardstown.

There are many challenges in this sector. I accept that we are dealing today with the horse and greyhound racing fund, 80% of which goes to horse racing and 20% of which goes to greyhound racing. When I first looked at this last week in the Seanad, I thought it was a phenomenal amount of money. We are talking about €96 million. The cumulative aggregate to this industry since 2001 is €1.36 billion. I understand why it is that much but it is a lot of money. What is critical is the governance of it. I will make some further comments first before I ask one or two questions. The funding will be increased. As the Minister says, it will be €1.46 billion. That is a phenomenal amount of money but also a phenomenal commitment to Irish racing and one that I support.

Initially I was concerned but I wish to put on the record my thanks to the Minister's Department and his officials, because when I started to ask questions and ask for documentation, it was very much forthcoming. I came at this with governance issues in mind and I am happy to say, having looked at the Comptroller and Auditor General's reports, that governance in HRI is strong. Governance is the area I want to talk about today. It is important because people need to know something about this. I commend HRI on its strategic plan. It has a plan and a vision, and it is also important we have that.

I wish to ask the Minister a question about the governance issue. I understand there were one or possibly two vacancies on the board of HRI, with possibly a third in the new year. I have looked at publicjobs.ie. That is the website that has given me this information. I ask the Minister to consider filling these vacancies quickly, with the prerequisites in terms of corporate governance, equestrian and all the other specialties. That is particularly important.

I have two other questions. Indecon carried out a very extensive report in 2012 and, I think, again in 2016, and the Minister himself referred to the Deloitte report. There are many good recommendations in those reports that have never been implemented. Working with stakeholders, I suggest that the Minister's officials in the Department, if they are mindful of this and think it is appropriate and right, dust down those reports and see which recommendations are still relevant today. I ask that they be implemented because there are many good suggestions in the Indecon and Deloitte reports on the industry.

On the whole, I am supportive of the funding. It is a huge amount of money, but we must consider the reassurances of the Comptroller and Auditor General, whose report for 2019 is, I understand, due on the Minister's desk. There are now strong governance measures in place that we could not have always said were there. I am in principle supportive of the proposals to fund the organisation going forward.