Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not know. I do not have that detail. What I am saying is that there are issues with this. The reply we received suggests that because this is a lease agreement, it is treated differently from a purchase but the key issue here is whether it meets the needs of the affiliates. If public money is going to be spent, can the facility actually function and meet their requirements? Can it expand in the future? It is a lease as opposed to a purchase and I think there are questions to be answered. Public money is being spent. Horse Sport Ireland receives quite a bit of funding from the Department and I would have thought that there should have been a high level of engagement with the affiliates on this. I do not know where this is at right now but wish to draw attention to it. I have also done that in the Dáil by way of a Topical Issue and have raised it with the Department. I am unhappy with the Department's stand-off approach to some of the organisations it funds. The Department tells us that the organisations are independent and while we do not want to see the Minister getting involved in the day-to-day running of an organisation, some level of oversight in the context of the spending of public money is required. In this case the amount of money involved may not be big but it is important nonetheless. It is also important that-----