Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 24 October 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 10 - Forestry Grants

9:00 am

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

It operates on a commercial basis. It runs commercial enterprises and the objective is to make those sustainable, economically and commercially. Obviously, there is a public policy remit here and the judgment was, I presume from time immemorial, that this made a contribution to rural life and employment and was therefore worth subsidising. They are commercial in the sense that they run commercial greyhound stadia.