Mr. Ronan Corrigan:

Competent in certain areas, yes. Our concern is that they may not be knowledgeable enough as to what our sector and industry wants. If the Minister looks at them, they are very competent in the role they were in previously. Maybe he believes they will be competent and good in guiding the sector. However, our problem is the sector is not getting in the room properly to say what is needed. Those people are, effectively, deciding on the policy and they are deciding what the sector wants, even though the sector is telling them it is not what it needs; that it wants something else.

We had this discussion with them. It refers to what Mr. McCartan, Mr. Fagan and Mr. Chris Byrne said. HRI has a good system where it supports racecourses to develop them, which develops things. The HRI board is made up primarily of nominees from the different sections of the industry. Why are we so different? That is what I am looking at. Why are we so different? We are a smaller industry but we are actually spread wider because we have ponies, horses and children. Racing does not have that. It has breeding and competition. We have that. It has a board that is broad but it has direct input from people who are very knowledgeable in the industry and actually represent sectors of the industry. The bookmakers, trainers and stable staff are all sitting on the board, which means they are accountable to the people on the ground. They are also accountable to the Minister, which is correct, and to the taxpayer. They are accountable and answerable to the people on the ground. If you have a problem, you will be darn sure that, for example, if there is a message the bookies needs to get across, Daragh Fitzpatrick as the bookies’ representative on the board of HRI gets it across. The trainers, the stable staff – they are all the there. Then what have we got? We have HRI, which works with the IHRB, which is the rules committee. It works with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. They all work together because they all recognise the specialist expertise each person has. That is what we are missing. There are competent and very good people there. Unfortunately, those people, based on the creature they have now in their constitution, are actually not able to use all the people who are sitting here, and I can refer to other high-performance affiliates who are sitting at home and are probably watching us. They are crying they want support.

Para Equestrian Ireland is disabled people who are trying to compete internationally. It has 47 members out shaking buckets. It is a charity. It should not be asked for any contribution towards high performance.

We should be giving them more. I am sorry to be long-winded in answering the question, but competent people are certainly in place.