Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister should read the Bill, as I did. I also attended the meeting of the joint committee at which the Bill was subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny. I want assurances that none of this will happen. I am involved in point-to-point racing. The Minister may believe I am a fool who knows nothing about the sport, but I know a bit about it. I have many questions to ask about how the legislation will operate. Did Horse Racing Ireland provide integrity funding for point-to-point races? Was it provided under the development and promotion of the Irish horse racing industry or under the promotion of the Irish thoroughbred horse? In what way will HRI provide such funding?

I have here a copy of the agreement reached between the then Minister for Agriculture and Food and Minister for Finance in 2001. At that time, the Turf Club agreed to transfer a number of registry office functions and racing administration to Horse Racing Ireland on the basis of a guarantee of funding for the industry and an agreement that all costs of integrity services would be recovered from HRI on the basis of an agreed budget. Joe Walsh and Charlie McCreevy were the Ministers for Agriculture and Food and Finance, respectively, at the time. I remember a memorandum of understanding being drawn up because I was the Labour Party spokesperson on agriculture at the time.

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