Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Operational Matters and Corporate Plans of Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion

Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

To pick up on a couple of the other points, I refer to the all-weather evaluation. There is an evaluation process ongoing so we put it out to expressions of interest. We received three from existing racecourses and three from private ventures, and we are working our way through those systems. There are different issues with each of those, but certainly there were three private ventures that expressed an interest, including one in County Kildare, which I am sure the Senator is familiar with.

On blocks of racing situated on site, I do not think that is a runner because we have 26 racecourses. If we suddenly said we are going to race for three weeks in a row-----