Ms Geraldine Larkin:

If I can respond briefly, in terms of our response to the Indecon, that has been submitted to the Department and published on our website. A link to the document was included in the briefing.

To briefly give the committee an overview of our response to Indecon's - Deputy Costello is right - 27 recommendations, it indicates what we are going to do about each of the 27 recommendations and the timeframe in which we are going to do it. It is very clear, both within the document and then in a summary appendix at the back of the document, how exactly we are going to hit each of the recommendations.

Specifically, Deputy Costello talked about asset disposal and the consideration around Harold's Cross. I have two things to put forward in reply to that. First of all, when the board and the executive were formulating the response to the Indecon report, obviously we looked at what other proposals might be considered rather than an asset disposal of Harold's Cross. The proposals put forward by the executive included a review of all the stadiums that are currently under the control of Irish Greyhound Board, looking at them from the perspective of operational performance, operational surpluses, the freehold or leasehold arrangements on particular sites or stadiums, and, indeed, the particular zoning attached to each one. After that analysis, and, indeed, looking at the surplus that is generated on an annual basis by Harold's Cross and doing a projection on those figures, it was on that basis that the board decided to proceed with the sale of Harold's Cross. While Harold's Cross is in profit - to the tune of €200,000 in 2013 - the reality of the situation the IGB is in is that its debts are far greater than any continued operation of Harold's Cross would realise, assuming we can dispose of the asset with full zoning.

It also has to be considered that, while I accept what Deputy Costello is saying in-----