Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the committee we heard members of the board state they were going to initiate the provision of training on corporate governance, the implication being it had not been provided before. Anyone who attended the meeting and watched the performance of board members could see that, while they were certainly interested in horse racing, their level of professionalism or, rather, lack of, was utterly shocking. There are huge amounts of public money at stake in this organisation. The figure is almost €250 million since 2011. The point has been made that, while the people on the board are clearly committed to the development of horse racing, it is a very small community. Opportunities may arise for many of the people concerned or their projects to benefit from some of the moneys that come through Horse Racing Ireland. I am not suggesting that is the case, but we need to be assured that it is not. To my mind, the only way to receive that assurance is through having a proper inquiry into corporate governance at HRI in the past five years. We would learn a lot and receive more than the assurance that has been provided, given the nature of the horse racing community.

There are other issues about staffing that were not aired at the committee. There were allegations about payments being made by the CEO, probably without the knowledge of the board, to settle workplace claims. There are the concerns about the high turnover of staff in HRI, bullying and so on. All of these matters have to be investigated.

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