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)
Mr. Darragh O'Loughlin:
I am reluctant to give any hostages to fortune because we are very much in hands of Mazars, which is carrying out the review. It is entirely independent of us. We brought Mazars in and gave it access to all of our records and people, as needed. From speaking to the company, I get the impression it is coming very close to the end of the process. When it has concluded all of its interviews, it will draft a report and have it reviewed by its own lawyers to make sure it is legally sound before we see it at all. That process will take a couple of weeks. At the very end of November, it is really difficult for me to say whether it will be before Christmas or afterwards because there is realistically only two and half weeks of productive work between now and the Christmas break. I would like to see it before the end of the year. I am very anxious to see it before the end of the year so that we can go into the new year with findings and recommendations we can act on. However, there is nothing I can do to make it come any faster.