Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The public is funding not only an industry that is responsible for the deaths of 6,000 greyhounds a year because they are not fast enough, but we are also funding the British greyhound racing industry. An analysis conducted by Preferred Results business consultants, and reported in The Sunday TimesIreland edition, found that 6,300 Irish greyhounds are exported annually to the UK and sold at a loss of almost €5,000 each. Effectively, it is a direct subsidy from the public, through the greyhound racing industry, to the British greyhound racing industry. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of funding the Irish greyhound industry, why on earth are we effectively funding the British greyhound racing industry? Why are we funding the greyhound industry when over half of those attending greyhound races are getting complimentary tickets? In other words, they are to some degree insiders. There is not a big public appetite for greyhound racing. We do not see big queues of people going to events. Why are we still providing public funding for the industry?

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