Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Senator Paul Daly implied, we engaged on the issue of organic farming previously. The Minister of State was the Chairman of the agriculture committee during the previous Dáil and his report was published with a range of recommendations. Apparently, quite a few remain to be implemented. Obviously, concerns were expressed to the Minister of State over the scheme. In 2015, a number of organisations appeared before the committee, including the Department, Bord Bia and some of the organic farming bodies, and the report was published in late 2015. The current agriculture committee has learned that there are considerable issues.

I wish to highlight a number of the recommendations and what we understand to be the state of play in regard to them. First, the joint committee recommended that the Department should ensure no payments would be delayed in 2015 as they were in 2014. We understand there are still problems in regard to payments being made on time. On foot of circumstances concerning GLAS payments, we had a considerable session with officials from the Minister of State's Department recently and went through the IT systems and some of the circumstances that have obtained. We have been given assurances that the problems will not be repeated. I would like a sense of what is happening in this regard.

The second of the recommendations, which total 17, was that the Department should investigate whether it would be more efficient to have one streamlined body granting organic status, preferably Bord Bia, and that the registration fee should be reduced. Again, we are advised this has not been implemented. I would like the Minister of State's view on that.

The fourth of the 17 recommendations expressed the joint committee's concern that smaller farmers are not benefitting adequately from the organic farming scheme while farmers with larger holdings are benefitting disproportionately. It was recommended that payment on the first 20 hectares would be front-loaded, amounting to €315 per hectare, in view of the fact that small farmers cannot avail of the organic payments and also claim for low-income pastures or traditional hay meadows under GLAS. Again, we are advised this recommendation has not been implemented. We want to know why.

The next recommendation that was brought to our attention was No. 11. The joint committee recommended that the Department employ a risk-based inspection regime when inspecting premises engaged in organic farming. That has not been implemented.

Recommendation No. 12 was that the Department should attempt to reduce the duplication of inspections by making Bord Bia the certification body. The committee has been advised that this recommendation has not been implemented. The Minister of State was Chairman of the committee that published the report. I commend him and the then committee for what appears to have been an excellent piece of work, but he will agree that one of the frustrations in Leinster House is that, whenever committees put a lot of work into matters, hold hearings and produce reports, they end up down the back of a radiator, as a comedian famously alludes to every week. That is not acceptable. If Members are to have credibility, reports must be analysed. I commend the current Chairman of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Pat Deering, who was Vice Chairman when the report was published for revisiting these issues and seeking to hold people to account. I appreciate that the Minister of State probably cannot give a full response, but will he issue me, Senator Paul Daly, other Senators who are interested and the committee with a detailed response on why the recommendations are not being implemented? Sometimes, there are good reasons, but the Minister of State should tell us why.

As the Minister of State knows, there has been a great deal of controversy about the greyhound industry in recent years. Apparently, 10,300 people are employed in it. I would love to know where they work and the basis for the claim that the industry contributes €500 million to the economy. My party opposed the decision to allocate in the recent budget €80 million to the greyhound and horse racing industries. We called votes on it in the Dáil and the Seanad. According to Horse Racing Ireland, the horse racing industry employs 14,000 people and contributes €1.1 billion to the economy. People were concerned that half of the €80 million - not even that much; €14 million - could have been used to ensure a place on a school bus for every child in the State who wished to have one. That is the kind of choice that must be made in government. Do we allocate money to an industry, certainly the horse racing end, that many argue involves wealthy people?

There have been serious questions for quite a while about corporate governance within the greyhound board. The resignation of Ms Geraldine Larkin late last year was a symptom of the crisis in the greyhound industry, which is well known and has been reflected in the findings of the many reports produced in recent years. The Government needs to take decisive action to re-establish confidence in the industry. The time has come to stand down the board and reorganise structures with the clear objective of implementing the recommendations made in the Morris report on the misuse of drugs and the recommendations of the Oireachtas agriculture committee on corporate governance. The industry is a mess that must be cleaned up, with serious issues of mismanagement and doping undermining its credibility and integrity. Such is the mistrust of the dog testing system that the Irish Greyhound Board recently issued the directive that no Irish dog should be allowed to run in Britain without first being tested and being found to be clear of drugs by the British authorities. The disregard shown for the rules and basic controls expected in any semi-State body has alarmed and frustrated dog breeders and owners across the country. Last year we voted against the decision of the Government to allocate €16 million to the Irish Greyhound Board. We made the point that these organisations needed to step up to the plate and that we would still be discussing the significant inadequacies therein when we reached the budget for next year.

I wish to address the issue of the sale of the Harold's Cross stadium which has been operating since 1927 and is a much loved track among smaller owners. The Minister of State probably heard them on the news saying they could not afford to compete at other venues. Harold's Cross has been a popular track among generations of punters and the greyhound racing fraternity is upset about its closure.

The horse and greyhound racing fund will be before the Houses again. We will engage on it and may table amendments, but before the Minister of State comes to us in the next year looking for more money for the board, he must ensure the industry will have cleaned up its act.