Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this discussion on Bord na gCon, the Irish Greyhound Board. I wish to ask a number of questions that have been sent to me by the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation in particular. Of the funding of €10.84 million for IGB, approximately 50% comes from the 1% tax on betting and the other half comes from Exchequer funding. Funding for the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund is approximately on a 50:50 basis following the approval of the SI. Therefore we must ask whether the taxpayer is getting value for money.

Let us consider the IGB figures for the years from 2007 to 2012. In 2007 in a strategic plan presented to the Minister, the tote turnover projected by the CEO, Mr. Nealon, was expected to increase from €48 million that year to €75 million by 2012 and the CEO was confident of achieving this. However, the reality is completely different. Tote turnover in 2007 was €48 million, in 2008 it was €44 million, in 2009 it was €32 million, in 2010 it was €24 million, in 2011 it was €24 million, and 2012 it was €19 million. This represents a reduction of 60.4%. How can anyone have confidence in an organisation that is getting €10.8 million, half of which is coming from the taxpayers this year, and it is not even able to implement its own strategic plan?

The 2012 IGB audited accounts were presented to the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on 12 December 2013. When will they be published? I understand they are due to go before Cabinet. Why is there a delay in publishing the 2012 accounts, given that we are now approaching the end of the second months of 2014?

A number of alarming questions about the stadia in Limerick and Dundalk have been raised with the Minister of State. While I do not have time to go into the queries, I ask him to expand on the issue of the running of a so-called ringer in Dundalk, the audit that was carried out there, and the manner in which the auditor's findings were not published by the board. In fact the IGB published its own findings. I also ask the Minister of State to expand on the issue of the problem with the bend in the track in Limerick. Why does Limerick Greyhound Stadium, one of the best in the country, continue to lose substantial sums of money?

Does the Minister of State have complete faith in the board members of the IGB? Obviously Mr. Nealon, the former CEO, has gone. We need a full investigation into the destruction carried out in recent years. We are talking about taxpayers' money. Who will appoint the new CEO? Will it be the board, as has been the case heretofore, or will the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine step in to appoint a new CEO? If it is the latter, it indicates that the Minister of State does not have confidence in the board. If that is the case, would he go so far as to call for the board to resign and a new board to be appointed?

One of the genuine IGB board members, Mr. Brendan Moore, wrote to the Minister of State on 19 July 2013, outlining his major concerns. He raised a number of extremely pertinent questions. He stated:

At the present moment Bord na gCon is heavily indebted to a commercial bank. As the debt is not "State guaranteed" the tracks are taken as security. The failure of Bord na gCon to identify and deal with a doomed business model for the last five years has placed the Industry on the cusp of disaster. Confidence in the Industry is at an all time low ... The Board and Executive have not dealt with these issues in a transparent and competent manner leading to massive reputational damage at home and abroad.

The indebtedness is approximately €30 million. I do not have the answers to these questions and I am not sure if the Minister of State has the answers. If those answers are not available, it is time for a full independent investigation. While an independent audit is one thing, given the nature of the moneys involved a full and transparent public independent investigation of the operations of IGB is now overdue. I call on the Minister of State to instigate such an investigation. This is an issue that will not go away. Millions of euro of taxpayers' money is called into question here.

The performance of the IGB since 2007 leaves much to be desired. Why is the IGB refusing to meet the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation? If the greyhound racing industry is to survive, all the parties must pull together. However, a unified approach would appear to be unlikely, given that the board, the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, continue to exclude the owners.