Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Yes and I should have added this point because it deals exactly with that point. At the time, the board undertook to engage with a geneticist and have him examine the greyhound issue. The board was to get advice from that Teagasc expert and make a judgment on whether or not the rule needed to be reintroduced based on the output of that exercise. I think that is still going on, to be honest. However, it is open to the board to reintroduce that rule at any time. If they reintroduce it, it has to be applied of course. They are looking at that, however. There could be issues, although I cannot articulate them here, about the practicability of applying the rule. Others who sit where I am sitting now might say there are not and they might be able to explain.

This is an intractable situation. It is very divisive and the cause of much public debate. We cannot legislate retrospectively, so this simple provision is an effort to deal with it in that any dog now registered on the stud book is eligible to race, full stop. If the board feels it appropriate, based on the advice they get on exactly that point, to reintroduce that regulation or any other regulation that limits the use of straws from dead dogs, then they are entirely at liberty to do so.