Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Kavanagh and Mr. Egan and the other representatives from HRI and the IHRB. I am indeed the person who sent in the correspondence after reading of a leading horse trainer in some of the national newspapers. I got very concerned because I have a very keen interest in horse racing, which is a very important industry to Ireland and I do not want to see it going down the same way other industries have. Beginning with Mr. Egan, I do not want him to pass the questions over to anybody else. I ask he answer them himself. He said the information he gets is assessed and acted upon. I wonder whether it is anything like the amount of information I have got over the last number of weeks since I sent in this correspondence. I have been absolutely horrified and am very concerned. I am more concerned by the day about what is happening within the IHRB and maybe what is not happening within it. People who have been contacting Mr. Egan's organisation are saying information is not being assessed or acted upon. I have to believe these people who come to me and the witnesses have to prove themselves not guilty.

I have a couple of questions about the IHRB accounts for 2018 and 2019. I have been contacted by people in the industry who are very concerned by what they have seen in the board's accounts. Why was the budget for the forensic equine unit cut by almost €500,000 between 2018 and 2019? Mr. Egan has repeatedly stated the IHRB increased its testing for prohibited drugs but the figures for this show this to not be true. Why did the racecourse samples decrease between 2017 and 2019? In 2017 there were 3,074, in 2018 3,034 and in 2019 3,004. I ask Mr. Egan to answer those and then I have further questions for him.