Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

What we are providing for here is a maximum of eight members. I am not suggesting that this will be a regular feature. I am simply saying that if there was a backlog for some reason, this could be done. It is a technical possibility. However, the Chairman is right. It would be a tricky road. There is a range of issues here that are racing sanctions, including these doping offences that might be provided for by regulation. It may be necessary to have two committees. I agree with the Chairman that it would not be something one would do lightly, but the power is here to do it if one wanted to do it.

The purpose of making these sanctions administrative in nature is to try to speed up the administration. This is another piece of that jigsaw. We are increasing the membership to a maximum of eight, though we might never have that number. We are also allowing for the nomination of a deputy chairman. We are providing that there is a three-year term for members with a maximum of two terms. We are providing for a mandatory disclosure of conflicts of interest. We are providing for a guarantee in the subsection (20) that the committee will have sufficient resources to cover its cost. Where there is a dispute between Greyhound Racing Ireland and the committee, we are providing for an arbitration procedure.

At present, there are no issues with resources in the practice of the control committee. People turn up, get a fee for turning up and the committee does not have significant resources. We simply wanted to provide for the possibility that the control committee might say that it wants independent advice on something or some other resource. If it does that, we want to make sure that it is given the resource to cover that and to shore up its independence. We have also provided explicitly for the power of the control committee to make policy recommendations to Greyhound Racing Ireland. I believe that is a reasonably sensible provision. These are people who are looking at these cases regularly. They may well have a view on how the policy needs to be tweaked or adjusted. It should be empowered to make those recommendations to the board.