Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Head 21 is a new provision. I have spoken a bit about this already. The control committee will be established for the first time as a creature of primary legislation. Up to now, the functions of Bord na gCon were delegated to the committee by regulation. In the proposed legislation, it is given independent statutory basis and functions which are to be exercised independently. Its function is to decide whether there has been a breach of the racing code and to make determinations on the potential application of racing sanctions. Subsection (3) states that it is independent in the exercise of its functions. Subsection (4) states that it may make rules for its own procedures and shall publish those rules. Transparency is important when one is administering rules like this.

We are increasing the number of members to a maximum of eight and allowing for the nomination of a deputy chairman. The control committee currently sits with three members. It was explicitly referenced in the Indecon report that work can take time, even though this body meets about once a month, and there can be backlogs of cases. What we are allowing for in this provision is that there may be more than one committee operating at a time if there is a backlog. Therefore, the committee could appoint a deputy chairman to sit on the separate committee to try to make its way through the backlog more quickly. One would have to be careful to ensure there is consistency between the committees. If that were done-----