Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Precisely. I am taking this opportunity to inform him and see what he wishes to say in response to the concerns I have raised and the questions I am asking. These issues are too important not to take every opportunity to bring them up. The shocking mistreatment of retired horses, which was exposed in a BBC "Panorama" report, was also discussed during the hearings of that Oireachtas committee. These are important issues. The committee published its report on 9 November. I believe enough time has passed to enable the Minister to at least give a general view or commit to giving some kind of response to the recommendations of the committee. Perhaps he has done so already.

I will leave it at that. There are a number of recommendations in the report; approximately 11. The particular area I have focused on, however, is the need for governance change at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, having regard to all the money it receives indirectly from the State. The question is whether the Government intends to leave it to the IHRB to clean up its own house or if it has been in communication to say it expects that certain changes will be made, and whether the Government will move to ensure such changes by way of legislation in the event that change is not forthcoming.

No alternative point of view was expressed at the committee. It is an open and shut case that the governance of the IHRB is a closed shop and nobody dissented from the argument that this needs to change. The Minister has responsibility for agriculture. It is important that he should have a view on it and that we would know at some point what his view is in order that we can then decide whether we want to be talking about crafting legislation in this House to try to address something as important as that. I am not trying to hold the Minister to giving a detailed response today; far from it. As I said, however, it is too important not to take this opportunity to bring it up.