Mr. Joe Keeling:

I will address taxation first. The taxation is ridiculously low. I remember a time in the 1980s when it was 20% in a bookie's shop and 10% at the track. It is inconceivable how it got to the stage it is at now. It all starts with taxation because that answers many of the other questions. We must be properly funded. Initially it will be 1% but we hope that over time that will go much further. If we want to secure a good racing industry it must be ring-fenced. One cannot make long-term decisions to invest in facilities if every year we are wondering what will happen in the budget. We need a five or ten year plan on funding so that we can plan. We need to invest huge money in the Curragh and Leopardstown. We can only do that if the funding is secure. We are addressing this issue and will be pushing it but it will be a difficult process. That is not going to affect the betting. We are not talking about 20% but it will generate a huge amount of money.

Since 2007 the attendance has gone down from 1.4 million to 1.2 million. That is a drop of 15% which is not a bad achievement considering the state of the economy and that we had three bad summers which affected attendances. It could be worse. There is not enough interest among young people. Most of those who go racing are over 50. Fairyhouse and some of the other courses are bringing schools in. There is a great deal of work to be done to encourage young people to go racing. We will address that.

I would like to improve the experience for someone who goes racing. I am passionate about the food which is very poor at many of the race courses. The experience in Galway is altogether different. The minute you walk in you feel welcome. Everybody will talk to you. If you sit down for a cup of tea or something to eat the person next to you will talk although you might never have met that person. Everybody shares whatever information they have. We would like to expand that. Punchestown is similar but Galway is unique.

We could do a lot to make the high net owners feel more welcome in Ireland. I have been meeting them. We need to make the experience unique for them because many of these high net worth people can be lonely. Whether a person keeps a horse in Ireland is down to people, not just the economics. This is particularly so in the national hunt. That depends on the skill of our trainers and facilities and the whole experience these people have here. I will be putting a great deal of effort into that.

We have to address the problem of selling horses in Ireland by encouraging people, by whatever means, to feel welcome. They need to feel that they will be well looked after and will get a proper price for their horse here. We would like to get far more sold here.

Have I addressed everything?