Mr. Jason Morris:

I will give a flavour of some of the racecourse applications that have already been approved. Sligo has plans for a €1.9 million spend. It only races eight times a year but they have a strong local committee and are planning major refurbishments to the grandstand, as well as a two-storey building for a restaurant and hospitality areas. Roscommon is spending €964,000 and Ballinrobe is spending just over €500,000. Listowel in Kerry is spending €1.1 million on a new restaurant facility and has plans to spend a total of €1.5 million. Kilbeggan will shortly evaluate a €2 million development, which is very exciting and will hopefully add significantly to its hospitality capacity and public facilities. Killarney plans to spend €850,000 and Tramore €1.2 million so this is not a scheme for a small number of tracks but one for every racecourse. We try to support them all and have approved the plans of every racecourse so far. We investigate carefully whether they have the financial resources to provide the 60% funding. They do not pay a dividend but reinvest their money back into facilities so that they can continue to attract crowds in a challenging economic environment. Attendances went up last year and that is pleasing and reflects the hard work racecourses do across the country.