Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I think so, yes. In fact, we had the very same discussion when we included it on the list.

On the same list on page 11, a board member ceases to hold office if he or she is guilty of an offence involving cruelty to animals or relating to animal welfare. We have set the quorum for a meeting of the board at six. The quorum has increased because of the increase in board membership. Head 7 contains reasonably standard provisions relating to the exclusion from membership of the board if elected to political office which hardly warrant discussion. Head 8 deals with disclosure of interests. Disclosure rules would apply anyway under any kind of code of governance for a board but the Indecon report recommended that we include something specific in the legislation. There is a specific statutory requirement for any member of a board who has an interest in a topic for discussion or consideration by the board to disclose that interest, not to seek to influence a decision relating to the matter, to take no part in the consideration of the matter, withdraw from the meeting and not to vote or otherwise act as a member in relation to any such matter.Again, these are sensible provisions that are applied anyway under the code of governance but we have specifically referenced them here for inclusion in the Act.

Under head 9 we have inserted a function to make it clear that the board is entitled to provide funding for the enhancement of the welfare of greyhounds. In practice, the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 makes clear that the board has a function with regard to the welfare of greyhounds but we wanted to include it here too in order to make that crystal clear. We are also inserting a new section that provides, more explicitly, for the general functions of Greyhound Racing Ireland.