Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I wish everyone a good morning. It is infuriating when you have a witness in front of you and discover you have not received a fair response. In this case, it is fortunate that the witnesses are here a couple of weeks after the representatives of Horse Racing Ireland and the IHRB were before the committee. That is the context. A Department official was here. It is infuriating to have to back over the same questions.

Mr. Gleeson talked about the 2012 prosecution and said that two other prosecutions were dismissed. That, however, is not the full story. Those prosecutions were dismissed because of the absence of key witnesses. Some key witnesses were not notified of the court date and were not there to give evidence. That was the cause of the dismissal. That must have been infuriating for the people who had done the work to get to the point where a prosecution was taken. I do not know if the gaps have been closed to ensure that will not happen again in future prosecutions. I know the kind of evidence that must have been assembled and the Department would have been well aware of the nature of those complaints. Even if they were not successful prosecutions, the Department would have had the information. Even with that knowledge, the licence was still renewed. Who is involved in the awarding of the licence? Is there any animal welfare input into the awarding of licences? Surely it is not just about the premises.