Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He is one of the most honourable people in here, but the reply supplied by his Department is the same garbage that departmental officials supplied to me, Deputy Burke and others at last week's Committee of Public Accounts meeting. It does not get to the nub of the issue. It is washing its hands of it. It is letting down the owners, breeders, trainers and patrons. There is a fundamental problem with this organisation, its board and the executive that is running it. It needs to be rooted out and dealt with. The Department simply cannot wash its hands of its responsibility. There has been no representative of the Department on the board of the Irish Greyhound Board for some time. There is no accountability.

I very rarely come in here and speak like this. The people I reference here will not stop until they get accountability. The Minister of State has an opportunity to ensure that happens. It starts now by taking over this organisation, taking over the board on an interim basis, finding out what has been going on and putting in place a plan for the future. The Indecon report is nearly four years old.

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