Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate all this. I am as anxious as anybody to let this new legislation get into the committee so that every stakeholder including those representing the Harold's Cross track will get the opportunity to have their say. Timing is critical here. I hope this can be put into the committee's schedule in the next couple of weeks. I have notified it so that the members can plan to have it on their work programme. In my previous role as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine we had the same process for the horseracing legislation.

This is a legacy debt that precedes my time and that of my two predecessors over two Governments. It was decided in 2014 that proper due diligence was not carried out over the development of the Limerick track. However, that is water under the bridge, unfortunately, and the debt continues.

I agree with what Deputies Curran and Kelly said about a business plan. That has to be the main focus of the organisation. I ask people to bear in mind that I answered parliamentary questions a couple of weeks ago asking if it was fair to put €16 million of taxpayers' money into a declining industry, which is a fair question. However, the background to that was a different agenda. Some Members of this House have a completely different opinion and they are not all from the city, as one might expect.

At the outset I specifically requested to meet the representatives of the Harold's Cross track on their own. If there was any way we could prevent this from happening, I would be happy to hear it. To go back to Deputy Kelly's point about the makeup of the board, how they will be filled and how their terms will operate, over the course of the discussions on pre-legislative scrutiny it will be important to stress having ministerial and departmental presence on that board all the time.

It provides regular budgetary updates on its trading position, which is actually quite healthy. However, to deal with the legacy debt will take a very ambitious plan. At the moment the only one seems to be the recommendations of the Indecon report.

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