Results 3,621-3,640 of 7,412 for speaker:Neasa Hourigan

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Is Mr. Fitzgerald telling me that an 18-month old dog that runs a race on a Tuesday is registered on the traceability scheme as retired on a Thursday and then is back racing from Saturday? Is that what he is describing?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Then I am going to put the retired dogs into the 2,000 that get rehomed.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Is Mr. Fitzgerald telling me that the 4,500 number is not indicative of how many dogs are in the racing pool in Ireland? A couple of years ago it was 3,500. Mr. Fitzgerald now seems to be saying it is in the region of 6,000. That is a completely different number from the one he provided in the report.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: In the last six weeks.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: What is the classification for those that are not active? Surely it cannot be that they are retired.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: How many dogs are inactive?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: The witnesses look at the numbers every day. I am sure there is a ballpark figure. Is it 2,500?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: To be clear, we are producing 14,000 pups a year and there are 23,000-----

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Mr. Herbert has still not given me the number I was looking for, that is, the number of inactive dogs.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I want to cover the strategic plan. If that includes export and the figure is 5,000 dogs, we have already established that the export numbers are much higher than that. That does not add up. I am asking Mr. Herbert where the 2,500 dogs are.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: It does not cover the export numbers. Does Rasaíocht Con Éireann not use the export numbers in its business case? Mr. Herbert has just said the export numbers are fundamental to the business model.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank the Chair. I want to stay on the strategic plan, that is, the existing one, and seek updates about what was implemented. There was an aim in the plan to extend the racing life of dogs from I believe 48 months to 72 months. Where are we with that?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Are we saying there is no longer an aim to extend the life of a racing dog to 72 months?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: We are not actually running any races, based on that.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay. I was under the impression the reason it was in the strategic plan and we wanted to do it was A, it would cost the taxpayer less and it would require fewer dogs and B, it would improve animal welfare outcomes because there would be fewer collateral pups. Is that a fair categorisation of why we would extend to 72 months?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: We have ceased to run those races because not enough people were participating.

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay. Will we see the extension to 72 months in the new strategic plan?

Public Accounts Committee: Greyhound Racing Ireland: Financial Statements 2021 (10 Nov 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Considering we are not running any races I am not hopeful.