Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Ray ButlerRay Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for all his hard work. I have seen the Minister of State go around the tracks at Shelbourne Park and country tracks and give his input and meet trainers, owners and managers. I also thank his officials.

We have seen significant mistakes made down through the years on pensions for people who worked in Bord na gCon in Limerick. At one time, before the crash, the CEO was earning more money than the Taoiseach - the guts of €350,000 for running a State body. We put in €17 million of taxpayers' money and very little of that was coming down to the breeder, trainer or tracks. I hope we have learned a hard lesson and that mistakes of the past will never happen again. I have no problem with anybody getting a decent wage and being paid the proper wage for their work but that was ridiculous. It was a cash cow for certain people. When things went bad, those people just flew into the distance and went away with nothing said.

I thank the Minister of State for all his hard work and there is no doubt this will improve transparency and treatment in greyhound racing. I have seen how much work has been done through the years with retired greyhounds. Every greyhound owner, trainer and breeder loves their greyhound and wants them to have a happy retirement and a happy home. This cannot happen all the time but it is slowly getting there. At some stage, we will be able to retire all the greyhounds and re-home them. I thank the Minister of State for his work.

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