Results 421-440 of 1,041,741 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tim Lombard OR speaker:Mick Barry)

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

Tim Lombard: Money was moved out of a charity account for 94 days. This is a significant issue. What safeguards have been put in place regarding the charity aspect? As CEO of his organisation, does Mr. O'Loughlin believe that its work with the charities needs to be looked at? Is it part of his remit to manage the charity fund? Should other entities be involved in managing the fund? When one looks at...

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

Tim Lombard: I appreciate that.

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

Tim Lombard: Even the legalities of it are an issue. The IHRB is acting as a charity regulator and dealing with other issues that do not relate to it as the regulator of horse racing. It is slightly bizarre, to say the least, that the IHRB is tied into it.

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

Tim Lombard: When it comes to paying out, if they have to, which I hope they do not, it is effectively IHRB's staff who make those payments.

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

Tim Lombard: But that did not happen in this-----

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

Tim Lombard: My final point is about the cash flow issue that the IHRB experienced. I do not think there was any malice or personal gain to what happened, but it was a cash flow issue that brought the IHRB into that scenario. As an organisation, what management changes has IHRB put in place to make sure it does not have another cash flow issue, taking into consideration changes in staff and redundancy?...

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

Tim Lombard: On behalf of the committee, I thank the witnesses for their appearance here. It is very important that we have had this discussion. Hopefully we can build confidence in the industry going forward. I sincerely thank the three witnesses for coming in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: Following the agenda, the second session of today's meeting is on the examination of the TB eradication programme. The witnesses are welcome. I will now read the notice on privilege. Witnesses giving evidence from within the parliamentary precincts are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. This means that witnesses have a full defence in...

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

Tim Lombard: Have they ever commented publicly or privately about the possibility that it might not have been in the best interests of horse racing?

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

Tim Lombard: We need to wrap up shortly. I will come to the charity issue in a moment. Regarding the top-up, what guarantees does the committee have that the potential CEO, whoever it might be, does not get another top-up from the Turf Club in respect of this issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: I call Deputy Fitzmaurice. He will need to be brief.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: I question the conclusion about the building blocks being put in place and the prediction that there will be a lower disease level. I look at my own part of the world, that is, south Cork and south-west Cork. I argue that we are on the verge of an epidemic of TB in the next few months there. Cattle will be housed within the next few days. There are exceptionally high levels of TB at that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: The problem with that is there is no compensation for it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: I agree on the non-restricted part but still. One must send it to a certain abattoir and one knows what one is going to get. It will not be market value, and the farmer loses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: And I have been that soldier.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: It is a business decision, but from a risk point of view in respect of the Department, having doubtful animals in the system is a risk. Have we looked at the policy element of having such doubtfuls? We are not talking about the financial element, because we can talk about that and argue the point in that regard. There is, though, a risk element to having doubtfuls in a system. In some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: This calls into question the doubtfuls and whether, realistically, they should be looked at differently now when we consider where we are now with the figures regarding TB. We are looking at having a supplementary budget. If I am right, that is going to be increased by 71%, with another €40 million going into it. It is a huge amount of money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: I agree, but it is a part of a circle.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: I would argue that many of the 70% of dairy herds are closed herds.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Eradication of Bovine TB: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Nov 2024)

Tim Lombard: There could be an element of a stock cull in that.