Mr. Phil Meaney:

It is an excellent question in so far as the first two and a half or three years that I was involved with Bord na gCon were firefighting. As with many other industries, now is the first time the board has had an opportunity to be strategic and to look where we are going. Things are not going to improve overnight. If the Chairman decides to bring us back in here next year, it is not going to be all bells and whistles from where I am sitting. There is going to be a gradual improvement over the next five years by getting people back into the industry. I am old enough to have seen this before where the greyhound industry takes a dip and then it comes back up again. There is no doubt we have taken a dip, a hammering, but slowly it is going to build back up.

Do I see the industry being able to survive without State support in five years? Honestly, no. I would not at this stage be able to state the number of people involved for the kind of industry it is. For example, it has not been mentioned today that a huge number of clubs and organisations up and down the country through the medium of greyhound racing raise a huge amount of money annually. It is very hard to put a figure on that, but I would say it could be anything between €4 million and €5 million.

For example, Kerry county board's main fundraising in the year is a big night at the dogs in Tralee. In Kilkenny, where I live, there is an organisation, BEAM, for people who need support. It is their biggest fundraiser. Even though it is a very small track, annually they raise €35,000 and they have done that for the past 20 years. To look at the greyhound industry purely in the context of the taxpayer putting in €14.5 million or €14.9 million is unfair. One needs to look at it in the context of the employment it gives, of the social side of it for community and for older people, and also for the amount of money it allows people to raise for very worthy causes. It may be not always very worthy; I think sometimes political parties might even use it. However, in general it is for very worthy needs.