Results 401-420 of 1,073,971 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Verona Murphy)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Who gave the go-ahead?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I refer to the jockeys fund. I cannot understand this and I ask Mr. O'Loughlin to explain it to me. The IHRB gets a budget to do its different things for the year. I refer to the amount of moneys that were unforeseen, we will say. I understand the jockeys one, where it was put over because there were cash flow problems, even though it was not the proper process. Then when the money came...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I know that but I am talking about the separate payment to the CEO.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I presume that when the yearly amount was agreed, this figure was not foreseen, to put it simply.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What was done by the end of the year? Was this money picked up by someone? Obviously, the taxpayer picked it up in the end.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am trying to find out the following. Of the budget agreed at the beginning of the year, whatever figure it was, was this money given to the IHRB to cover it, did it have to do without it or was something cut?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would it be that big of a balance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Was Mr. O'Loughlin there by the end of the year? When was he there?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: So Mr. O'Loughlin was there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We are sort of working in the dark, are we?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand that but I am only asking a simple question. When Mr. O'Loughlin came in, was there a shortfall of that figure in his books for the end of 2021?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Which services that the IHRB had budgeted for was money not given to?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Surely, there is a schedule for the year of what the IHRB needs money for. I presume Mr. O'Loughlin would try to find out if it went there or not when he came in as CEO.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Was that for other salaries and redundancies?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand Mr. O'Loughlin joined in June and he was not there before that. There was a shortfall in January, so moneys were transferred across. Was a bigger budget then given by HRI to cover the deficits for 2022?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: How much?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: HRI gave money to IHRB that it never sanctioned, but it gave it to the IHRB the following year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is taxpayers' money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed) (6 Nov 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Dr. Hillyer appeared previously before the committee and we spoke about a few things in the line of doping and all of that. When she was here, we bought up a difficulty that was happening when the IHRB was going out to where horses were kept or trained because, at times, horses could be gone somewhere else, and there was not traceability. Has that been resolved?