Ms Geraldine Larkin:

A question was asked about our repayment of debt. We intend to pay €1.3 million this year in debt repayments. Part of that will come from the increased allocation this year from Government funding. The remainder of it, approximately €650,000, will come from the sale of our former Limerick headquarters. There are just the two components. I wish to be quite clear that we are starting to realise funds from the asset disposals this year in terms of writing down debt.

In terms of the more long-term disposal of Harold's Cross greyhound stadium. We looked at alternatives, but they are very limited when one takes into account the structure and nature of greyhound racing. Comments were made on the number of tracks in different locations such as the fact that there are two tracks in Cork and elsewhere. The reality when looking at the positioning of tracks is that we can only sell the tracks that we own and therefore that rules out one of the tracks in Cork and brings us back to Dublin. In terms of Dublin, we must look at the fact that we have two tracks within 2.5 km of one another. One has to close for the other to open. It is not a case that both tracks are simultaneously operating and making profit. That becomes a key determinant in what we are doing and the decision to move forward. The intention is that once Harold’s Cross is closed, the business and the greyhound owners attending there would transfer to Shelbourne Park. There will be transitional issues and we will have sit down with the Dublin Greyhound Owners and Breeders Association, GOBA, to work through. I have given my commitment that when we are at that stage, we will do that.

The other issue in terms of loss-making tracks across the network, is that the decision to sell a track is not just based on its commercial performance; we must also look at the impact of taking a track out of commission. For instance, if we were to sell the track in Cork or Galway, we must be aware of the impact of that on the surrounding area in terms of the dog pools and performance. There are a number of different variables feeding into play, not just the commercial performance of the track alone.

Members can rest assured that we have considered alternatives but realistically there are no viable alternatives. What we need to do is to clear the debt quite quickly. Comments have been made in terms of looking back at the 2012 strategy and comparing it to the current Indecon plan. The most significant difference between the two plans is the fact that Indecon recommended a much more rapid repayment of the debt. According to the Indecon plan the debt must be reduced to approximately €7 million by 2017. In our original strategy plan we were closer to €17 million at the end of 2017. Members can see the difference and the importance of the driver of just taking that debt down.

The other way the debt impacts is on the amount we are spending every year on interest. The sale of Harold’s Cross would significantly reduce the interest we repay and the money can then be released and re-invested back into the industry for its regeneration. Core to the regeneration of the industry is having a stadium in Shelbourne Park that is state of the art and first class. I do not just mean first class for our leisure industry and leisure patrons but also for owners and trainers. At the moment I am not in a position to make any sort of capital investment in the industry. With the sale of Harold’s Cross, that can then happen, and some of that money can be transferred into Shelbourne Park to make those investments.

There were also questions in terms of the TV trial. The TV trial is just that; it is a trial at the moment.

The first part of that trial has been completed and has proven that the Irish greyhound industry has successfully worked to show it can deliver a high integrity, closely graded product; a viable live betting product for the industry and for the wider wagering market. The matter of payments and how they might be made is still at trial stage so we are still working through that process. It is a 12 week trial which commenced on 1 September 2015 so it has a number of weeks until completion. When the trial is concluded the IGB will look at the next step and will take into account what is on offer regarding the commercial reality. Currently we are opening stadiums that might not be viable at times. If we are looking forward to a product at a particular time and place then all of that must continue and all of those factors must balance because we cannot have a situation whereby individual tracks are operating at a loss, for the sake of television, hence the purpose of a TV trial. That is an ongoing piece of work.

Reference was made to food and beverage. Food and beverage give us the advantages of flexibility and adaptability. For example, if we see a night when attendances are poor - and if we project these monthly and weekly - we can target marketing activities, digital strategies and use the food and beverage offerings on particular nights in order to drive up attendance numbers. This is working successfully.

We are in a position to drive our attendances earlier and faster. We are not yet out of October but I can report that as of yesterday due to our manipulating food offerings, and having the ability to advertise this much earlier on because we are in control of the market, we have seen a 20% increase and we intend to build and grow on that result.

I will now turn to communications. Much has been said at this committee today about communications. The greyhound industry is a hugely fragmented industry with many different groups involved. Since I was appointed CEO of the Irish Greyhound Board I have had a number of exchanges with the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation. There are a number of other groups totally separate from the federation and in an ideal world it would be great to bring all the groups together, not just the IGOBF, because different groups have different opinions and indeed there are differing opinions within groups. Debate is good and useful but the fragmented aspect of the industry is a challenge.

We also meet with a number of other stakeholder groups who have separate lives from the IGOBF and we meet groups at stadium level. I attend all the meetings of all the stadia, as do the representatives from the board. There are representatives from the local community, from the local greyhound owners' and breeders' associations and from the local track supporters’ clubs. There is quite a lot of feed in at grass-roots level on local issues, on national issues and on a broader scale basis from the federation. All of the issues however come on a fragmented basis. For example, one of the areas where it can become frustrating, and which underlines the concept of communications as a two-way street, is a recently issued public consultation paper on how to grow incentives, offering a number of different proposals and seeking other proposals. I put that consultation document forward as a seed document to spark the conversations. I received ten responses.

However, I received no response from the federation. That can make it very difficult to engage. I am sure there is a reason the federation has not submitted a reply. I would be happy to receive one and work through it. These are the difficulties from this side of the table and anything that pulls all sides together - both those inside and outside this room - is for the benefit of the industry because we all want the same thing, which is a sustainable industry.