Mr. Denis Duggan:

There is no disagreement at the moment. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has awarded the contract to the Irish Horse Board effective from 1 January. We went through a HR exercise where some of our staff had the option of transferring. We have been through all those processes, which took a considerable period. As far as we are concerned, the Irish Horse Board is actively marketing. We have met its representatives on a number of occasions since Christmas, most recently last week. We are trying to arrange diary dates for future meetings with them.