Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last December during the debate on the Animal Health and Welfare Bill I referred to the serious allegations made against the greyhound industry and Bord na gCon. At the time I was informed by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Tom Hayes, that he had commissioned a report from Indecon on the alleged doping of greyhounds and the waste of money at various tracks around the country. The report was intended to cover issues such as policy governance, the regulatory framework and financial controls. As some 30 issues had been raised by the Irish greyhound breeders organisation with the Minister, I requested that they be included in the issues to be covered by the report. Six months on Indecon has not published its report, even though the Minister indicated in the Lower House that the report would be available at the beginning of June. In correspondence I have received in recent days it has been indicated that it will not be available until the end of June, but that the Department will need a few extra weeks to examine it. Effectively, therefore, it will not be made available until after the summer recess. Thousands rely on the greyhound industry for their livelihoods. In my county the largest tourism attraction during the year is the Irish coursing festival which takes place in February and is worth approximately €5 million to the local economy. All of this will be jeopardised and damaged by the fact that question marks lie over greyhound racing on the track and coursing owing to allegations of doping, malpractice and other practices. It is not acceptable that a report which a company was commissioned in January to produce - it indicated to the Minister that it would be available within eight weeks - is not available 25 weeks later. I ask the Leader to request the Minister to come to the House to update us on the matter and to ask Indecon to deliver the report it promised to deliver three months ago.