Results 301-320 of 7,939 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What was done by the end of the year? Was this money picked up by someone? Obviously, the taxpayer picked it up in the end.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am trying to find out the following. Of the budget agreed at the beginning of the year, whatever figure it was, was this money given to the IHRB to cover it, did it have to do without it or was something cut?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would it be that big of a balance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Was Mr. O'Loughlin there by the end of the year? When was he there?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: So Mr. O'Loughlin was there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We are sort of working in the dark, are we?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand that but I am only asking a simple question. When Mr. O'Loughlin came in, was there a shortfall of that figure in his books for the end of 2021?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Which services that the IHRB had budgeted for was money not given to?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Surely, there is a schedule for the year of what the IHRB needs money for. I presume Mr. O'Loughlin would try to find out if it went there or not when he came in as CEO.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Was that for other salaries and redundancies?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand Mr. O'Loughlin joined in June and he was not there before that. There was a shortfall in January, so moneys were transferred across. Was a bigger budget then given by HRI to cover the deficits for 2022?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: How much?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: HRI gave money to IHRB that it never sanctioned, but it gave it to the IHRB the following year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is taxpayers' money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Dr. Hillyer appeared previously before the committee and we spoke about a few things in the line of doping and all of that. When she was here, we bought up a difficulty that was happening when the IHRB was going out to where horses were kept or trained because, at times, horses could be gone somewhere else, and there was not traceability. Has that been resolved?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I asked a question. Has it been resolved?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does Dr. Hillyer mean by "good progress"?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Testing what?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Will it be like the AIM system for cattle?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That will not solve the problem. From memory, the IHRB told us at a previous meeting that there was a difficulty, in that it could visit somewhere and be told that a horse had gone somewhere else. From what Dr. Hillyer is saying now, it is like we are Nanci Griffith and looking at it “From a Distance”, in that we are looking at different parts of where a foal is, but before...