Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his fairly lengthy reply. Unfortunately, Youghal was only mentioned once in it. It does not really deal with the detrimental effect of this. There is a thriving industry in Youghal. Again, I am asking why we are trying to fix something that is not broken. It says that the recommendations of the report, which have been accepted by the board of Bord na gCon, provide a road map to underpin a sustainable long-term future for the industry. If something is working, please do not try to fix it again. If we lose that industry in Youghal, it will affect our tourism. Many of the issues in this are slightly flawed because they are all about population, numbers and people coming in. In 2018, 1,016 races were held at 101 meetings. On top of that, the two months they do every year - July and August - that are free are not even in the report. This is a thriving business. I again appeal to whoever is dealing with this not to close this track because it will have a massive knock-on effect on local industry such as restaurants and hotels and the transport system. The caravan park behind it is jammed for the two months. It is probably the only outdoor sport that brings everybody in, including children.

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