Mr. Darragh O'Loughlin:

It might be helpful for me, for the committee, to distinguish between the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, IHRB, which is the racing regulatory body under the Horse Racing Ireland Act 2016, and the Turf Club and the INHSC, which before 2018 carried out that function. The INHSC and the Turf Club are not currently the racing regulatory bodies; they are private members' clubs. They are very important stakeholders in the IHRB and they each nominate directors to our board. Those two organisations, as private members' clubs, do not receive State funds. The Turf Club is not State-funded; it is a private members' organisation. The IHRB is a separate entity. My contract of employment is with the IHRB, not with the Turf Club and not with the INHSC. I do not work for those clubs, my CFO does not work for them and my chief veterinary officer does not work for them. We work for the IHRB, and the IHRB is funded by the taxpayer through an integrity services budget which comes from HRI. As the Senator has outlined, HRI is funded by the taxpayer. The-----