Results 1,381-1,400 of 7,648 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: I will work on that from my side. To return to my point, part of the President's comment was very welcome and part of his comment the bishop described as far-fetched and unhelpful. When I spoke to the bishop, he was very generous about President Higgins and said “I do not really blame him.” However, the Nigerian Government is pushing an analysis that seeks to portray these...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome all our guests. On the subject of gambling, I always feel a little conflicted about this issue given I was involved in bringing in the late, great Barney Curley to the Houses when we honoured him in 2015 for his wonderful charitable work for schools and hospitals in Africa. At the same time, it pricks my conscience as a legislator when I look at racing, generally on a Saturday...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Relative to other organisations, however, HRI is certainly in a very fortunate position to have a whole area of tax in the State ring-fenced for the purposes of its activities. Ms Eade would have to agree a lot of organisations would envy its position, as would the promoters of many other activities in the country. We will move on from that because I want to follow on from what Deputy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: I understand that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: The public expects that when big revenue comes in, for example, in Croke Park, then that would fund what happens around the country in, say, Duggan Park, Ballinasloe, County Galway, but the opposite seems to happen in the horse racing industry. I accept that there is a bigger pie than there used to be but the HRI used to get 7%. As I understand it, the HRI negotiated a fee or fixture...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Who decides?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Am I right that it is the HRI that decides?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Am I right that HRI has the final say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: The fact is that a disproportionate amount of money has gone to the bigger organisations.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: One possibility is that because smaller racecourses get less of a percentage of the overall pie because the media rights is a smaller percentage than it used to be, which is down to 86% as opposed to 93%, they are under more pressure to get the money together than they would need to do that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: If the chief executive denies that HRI has been abusing what I suggest is a privileged position, because HRI is the sole auctioneer, will she commit in future to taking no more than the market value for data rights in the agreement on the fixture charges?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: My information is that HRI gets in excess of what the market value for the data would be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: It is the complaint that I have put to the chief executive from people involved in the industry who happen to be smaller players. I do not know how independent anybody is in this situation. Since HRI itself owns racecourses, who is independent? I put it to the chief executive that we need an independent review of the data rights element of the package being negotiated as HRI is in a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: What is the difference?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: Is Ms Eade willing to go ahead with a review?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: I thank Ms Eade for her answers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: I thank the HRI representatives for their answers. They are facing questions on a diverse range of issues. To return to what HRI said it was willing to facilitate, I put it to the witnesses that there is a bit of a PR problem at some of the smaller racecourses and that there is an expectation that they should not be aggrieved in a situation like this. Can we get some action on HRI and AIR...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Strategic Priorities for Horse Racing Ireland: Discussion (15 Jun 2022)

Rónán Mullen: HRI said it was open to this in 2016. It would be helpful if there were some action on that. There is something bothering me. Ms Eade acknowledged the progress that has been made and spoke about HRI's synergies and work with the IHRB. She praised the proposed changes to its board. HRI is the funding organisation for the IHRB. It remains the case that it is a closed shop in respect of...