Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed)

Dr. Lynn Hillyer:

The simple answer is "Yes". We have very much considered and discussed that with Dr. Suann. I do not know whether he would be the right person to come back and do a follow-up, as it were. We would welcome any further examination of how we do our business and how we go about our business, particularly in this area. The benefit of having Dr. Suann back would be that he could directly measure our progress against the recommendations. There were 18 recommendations made, and we have made progress and achieved 14 of those 18 recommendations. As Mr. O'Loughlin said, we have put detailed plans in place to finish what we can achieve in terms of the increased sampling numbers. As I have said previously here, it is not just about the numbers. It is never just about the numbers; it is about the quality of the sampling and the analysis. All of that would be there for Dr. Suann to scrutinise again.