Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would not like to pre-empt in any way what might happen in the private session.

The witnesses have certainly given us food for thought. At the end of the day, we do not have time now to go through the history of Horse Sport Ireland but the witnesses have given us food for thought. It was a nine-member board and people stood down for various reasons.

I want to be very clear because these are televised proceedings of the Oireachtas and we are all on the record in this House. It is important we reaffirm the credentials of the very able and capable people that the Minister appointed. We did not appoint them, the Minister did. I talked earlier about the skills base that is required for a board. Just as the organisations here have skills and should in some way be involved in the board, it is also important to note the three people there are doing exceptional work. I understand they have not completed their work, so it is a case of "watch this space" in terms of what they may have to do. It is important to put that on the record. No one is calling into question their skill sets, and the board includes former officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and someone who has a very strong record in corporate governance.

To finalise a few issues, the Cathaoirleach made a very good suggestion in terms of looking at the model of Horse Racing Ireland in terms of the representative feed into that. That is a model that seems to work and we have had no issues with it, so let us look at that. However, we must also be conscious of the skills base on the board and corporate governance. Boards tend to be getting smaller, and State boards are certainly getting smaller, and there is a heavy focus on that.

I repeat that it is a good news story and the witnesses have articulated it well. It is a good news story and anybody who follows any form of equestrian sport will know we take great pride in it, and it is great to see the enthusiasm that has been set out. Through our engagement here today, we have crystallised the asks, which are not that many. It is about corporate governance, finance, accountability, transparency and communication, and they are all things we can together work to achieve.

There is a question I forgot to ask. I see Mr. Corrigan is smiling and it is a question that might be more pertinent to his sphere of equestrian sport. I have been told by athletes who compete in equestrian sports that some of them have been requested to give back some of their prize money to the organisation. I do not know if there is a protocol or policy in place for that or if it is voluntary in nature. Mr. Corrigan might shed some light on that, without opening it up into a debate. Is there a situation where there are requests to competitors to surrender or hand over some of their prize money? Is it pro rata, is there a percentage or is it voluntary? This person suggested to me that there was an element of pressure to do so. I say that just to try to understand if that is the case because we need to understand the funding and we also need to look at the issues around prize money in terms of getting the money in and distributing it. There has been a lot of correspondence over many months in regard to prize money. Mr. Corrigan might touch on that.