Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply. We discussed this matter on a number of occasions recently, both at the joint committee and elsewhere. I do not intend to comment on it in detail now. However, when we discussed the outputs for the year it was discovered that the target outputs keep changing. The first target was to introduce a new fund for a number of years but this morphed into a complete re-examination of how the organisation would be funded.

The year began with an increase in betting tax and the intention was that this would fund the horse and greyhound racing industries for the year, with little need for general Exchequer moneys. However, following successful lobbying from the betting industry, the tax has been reduced to 1%. This move was explained away by a statement to the effect that it would be better to seek a new source of funding - from Internet betting, etc., - for the industries involved. I would like to believe the latter was true but the Minister previously indicated that he has considered the matter and discovered it would be almost impossible to arrive at a new funding mechanism. Has any real thought been given to finding a new source of funding or is what is being done a mere exercise in window-dressing aimed at mollifying those who lobby loudest?

It was expected that a tax of 1% would yield between €30 million and €40 million. If the levy is reduced to 1%, from where will this money come? Will it be provided from general Exchequer funds or from the sports budget?

See this speech in context