Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

General Scheme of the Greyhound Industry Bill 2017: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

There are a couple of points to be made on that. First, there are currently six members and a chairman. We are proposing eight members and a chairman. We are, therefore, proposing two additional members. It is entirely open to the Minister to decide that he wants to appoint representatives of the industry under this new provision or, indeed, under the existing provision. That is possible. The question is whether one wants to provide, as a matter of law, for that representation. We have not done it here. If a report of the committee proposes that we do so, we would have to consider it. Issues arise over who one would appoint, for example. There would still be decisions to be made. It is possible to do it anyway without providing for it in the primary legislation.