Mr. Frank Nyhan:

He asked for it. I will return to the questions of Deputy Cahill. On traceability, we discussed this issue when we appeared before the committee approximately two years ago and sought its help in terms of the drafting of the Greyhound Racing Bill 2018. We had identified a problem in regard to the traceability of greyhounds. The proposed system enabled by the legislation is a shared database between the Irish Greyhound Board, the Irish Coursing Club and the Greyhound Board of Great Britain. The intention is that each of the parties will have access to the database and that there will be a statutory requirement on persons to update all life information relating to a greyhound on the database. It will be initiated by the microchipping of a greyhound, which is a statutory requirement, and thereafter it will follow what we believe is the gold standard, namely, traceability for cattle, insofar as possible, with all events having to be recorded within a statutory timeframe on the database.

We require the co-operation of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain as a result of the transfer of greyhounds between Ireland and Great Britain. We hope that by having it involved in the database, we will be able to identify dogs that turn up in other jurisdictions and identify the persons who sent them there. The indications from Great Britain are that it will co-operate in excluding such persons from membership in its organisations. That is the plan in that regard.

On the levy, the intention is to raise approximately €1 million in a year from a levy on members and all functions, including those identified by the Deputy such as social functions that take place on greyhound tracks. This initiative comes from greyhound owners. I have attended greyhound tracks and meetings since the programme in question was broadcast. People are anxious that there be an initiative. The levy is the source of that initiative. The sum of €1 million will be raised by a levy of approximately 10% and an increased fee on the naming of greyhounds, which will require the co-operation of the ICC. I do not think the latter will be an issue.

On integrity, the Irish Greyhound Board is as satisfied as it can be with the current integrity regime. Each year, approximately 5,000 tests are carried out on greyhounds, including before racing, after racing, in their kennels and unannounced. Of those tests, approximately 0.4% return an adverse analytical finding, which is a very small number of dogs.

All adverse analytical findings are reported and referred to the independent committee for adjudication. If the committee looks, as I know it does, at the results of the classics in greyhound racing for the past two seasons, it will see that they were all won by different greyhound trainers, large and small. The first three dogs in this year's English Greyhound Derby were all Irish owned and trained. They were tested in Ireland and England and there were no adverse findings. Insofar as we can be, we are satisfied with the integrity of the system.