Mr. Michael Murnane:

I understand what the Deputy is saying. I am a country boy myself so I know exactly where he is coming from but one can only pay out what one makes. In the timeframe in question, the horse and greyhound fund was reduced to €4.4 million. In 2014 the horse and greyhound fund stood at €10.8 million. In 2007 it was close to €14.5 million. The number of races has fallen as well. There was a cumulative fall of 7,700 races and nearly 5,000 of those date to the years 2009 to 2011. I mentioned previously that Indecon recommended that we should reduce race meetings where nights were loss making.

Another contributor to prize money is sponsorship and that has fallen by €1.3 million in that timeframe. A total of €1.2 million of the drop was between 2008 and 2010. We have been there and we do not want to go back to those times. Another part of it is that €4.2 million of operating surpluses of the IGB had to be retained to pay bank interest of €3.5 million and €750,000 in bank repayments. That is a massive figure. A total of €4.2 million had to be set aside to pay interest on a loan.