Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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304. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he was consulted by an organisation (details supplied); if he or his predecessors were consulted; the full cost of the rebrand; if he will provide details of the consultancy firm that carried out the rebrand; the reason for the rebrand; if funds granted from his Department were used for the rebrand; and if so, the amount used. [30798/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Rásíocht Con Éireann (RCÉ) is a commercial state body, established under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958 chiefly to control greyhound racing and to improve and develop the greyhound industry. RCÉ is a body corporate and a separate legal entity to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The renaming of Bord na gCon (Irish Greyhound Board) to Rásíocht Con Éireann (Greyhound Racing Ireland) arises from the implementation of the Greyhound Racing Act 2019. Given the significance of the reform of Bord na gCon and the greyhound industry with the additional powers and regulations laid down in the Act, it was decided to change the name from Bord na gCon to Rásaíocht Con Éireann. I signed a commencement order to bring certain sections of the Act into effect from 1^stOctober 2020. Section 8 of the Act provides that "The name of the board (established by section 6 of the Principal Act) the present name of which is Bord na gCon, shall be "Rásaíocht Con Éireann." Rásíocht Con Éireann are required to give effect to the implementation of the legislation.

A brand development project was initiated in 2017 with an external marketing company, Atomic, following a procurement process. The 2017 project was updated in January 2019 to take account of the impending name change of the organisation. The proposal included research, proposition development and creative design. The total cost arising is €64,000 + Vat.

Following the name change, necessary work was required to be undertaken by IT contractors on RCE's website and other IT infrastructure. These costs will be of the order of €10,000 in total.

All other work including promotional work was carried out by RCE's in house marketing and IT teams.