Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

Throughout my career in racing, I do not know of one race course that has paid a dividend to its shareholders. I said earlier that race courses are hanging on or clinging on to some extent. That is the wrong expression but they are surviving by virtue of the media rights money. We have seen how attendance at the GAA football championship has gone down by 28% in the past ten years. That is not happening in racing. Our attendances have held up but they have held up because of our big events, not our run-of-the-mill events. It is the same as rugby. More and more sports are being consumed and watched from the couch rather than at the live event. It is a real challenge to get attendances at those race meetings. The alternative to taking over Fairyhouse was to let it go into liquidation and be sold as a potential property play at the time when "funny money" was being bandied about for land all around the country.