We have been discussing this amendment for over two hours now and I think most of the things that have to be said have been said. There are only one or two points I should like to make to the Minister before I conclude. I want to try to point out the importance of this board and of the work it is to carry out, and also the importance of the powers that are being given to it. Once this board is appointed, it will be responsible for the control of greyhound racing and coursing. I should like the Minister and the House, if only for a moment, to consider the important work and the important functions for which these people will be responsible in the future. They will have the appointment of all the officers and there is also the question of the remuneration of the officers.
If we appoint, as the Minister suggests, four representatives from the standing committee of the Irish Coursing Club, it means that that body has complete control, with four out of seven members. It follows that the Irish Coursing Club members will have control of the appointment of officers. There is nothing to prevent them from appointing the people they wish to appoint themselves; these can be friends of their own, or people who have been identified with the Irish Coursing Club for a number of years; as a matter of fact, these could be other members of the standing committee. They fix the remuneration they are going to get themselves and there is nothing the Minister can do about that. They can purchase land or properties; they can sell these lands or properties after purchase. In other words, they can use the finances that are placed at their disposal because they have the right to borrow up to £25,000 without any permission from the Minister; it is only when they exceed £25,000 that they must go to the Minister for approval.
The board can delegate its powers to a sub-committee. That sub-committee may have the most important functions of all in connection with the industry. For instance, the control of racetracks may be handed over to it and the issue of permits may be given to this sub-committee, so that it could possibly happen that, instead of a board of seven deciding where a greyhound racetrack might be, or who was to have that racetrack, it might be the four members of the standing committee who would decide it.
We must remember two things when we talk of the standing committee of the Irish Coursing Club: One is that 16 of them are not elected representatives of the coursing clubs. These 16 members represent what are known as—in my opinion, the best word for them is — co-opted members; in other words, people who have not been selected or elected by the coursing clubs. It has been demonstrated here tonight, I think, by a number of speakers that, of the 21 people who are on the standing committee, 13 of them are already either directors or in some way connected with racetracks. I know that many of the names I have read out as being members of the standing committee are interested, in one way or another, in greyhound racing tracks in the country. If the powers are to be delegated to a sub-committee of four people and if two or three of these are directors of tracks, there is nothing to prevent them from refusing permission to some group to start a track. We have had that in the past when the Irish Coursing Club standing committee refused such permits. Waterford was one of the places and we know the reason why Waterford was refused. You had Waterford, Kilkenny and Clonmel together. Clonmel and Kilkenny were controlled from Clonmel and, because Waterford was going to do damage to Clonmel, it was thought better not to give a licence to Waterford.
We also had the case of Enniscorthy. There was an application from another place in the area and, because of its proximity to within a 30-miles radius of Enniscorthy, it was refused. These are part of the functions of the new board, no matter how you may look at it, and, leaving corruption and all the rest of it out, we must remember that these people have been members of the standing committee and had supreme control in the past.
The Minister now proposes to give it to them again. It has been admitted by Deputy Barry and, indeed, also by the Minister that these people have failed in their duty in the past. We all know that and the report of the investigation committee indicates that. That report has been accepted by the Minister. If that report is true, and I have no reason to doubt that it is true, I believe that we are doing a very bad thing for the industry generally if we put these people again in control.
The suggestion has been made here to-night regarding the personnel of the new board that in addition to the four members of the standing committee of the Irish Coursing Club the bookmakers would get a representative. That would be five. Another suggestion has been made that the breeders get representation. Deputy Sean Collins asked the Minister to give that representation and I think the Minister was agreeable to do so. It was very easy for the Minister to agree to give representation in a case like that. There is nothing to prevent him from taking two members of the standing committee of the Irish Coursing Club and saying that they represent the breeders of the greyhounds. Two others could be said to represent the tracks and others could be taken and said to represent any section of the industry.
Every member of the standing committee, as far as I know, is also a breeder. The Minister could not go wrong in picking out one or two of them to represent the breeders. These are not the people we want to represent the people. There was an organisation some years ago called the Greyhound Breeders' Association which represented greyhound breeders. These people had a quarrel with the standing committee of that time. They did not see eye to eye with the standing committee. If the breeders are to get representation, I believe that these are the people who should be chosen as their representatives.
The bookmakers are also entitled to representation, but in view of the Minister's assurance in the case of the bookmakers, I am prepared to withdraw our amendment in favour of Mrs. O'Carroll's amendment if she gives a guarantee that she and her Party are going to press that amendment and vote on it. If we do not get that assurance, then we shall press our own amendment. The amendment put for ward by the Labour Party is more explicit than ours and it is for that reason that I would support it. It may have been laxity on our part that we were not as explicit as the Labour people were, but our amendment covers our intentions.
We want to give representation to every interest in the greyhound industry. We are prepared to give two to the standing committee; one to the racetrack owners; two to the breeders and one to the bookmakers. The question of the racetrack owners is a simple one from the Minister's point of view. It would be very difficult for the Minister to avoid appointing a racetrack owner in his four, or even in three, of his four nominees from the standing committee due to the fact that the directors of the racetracks represent more than 50 per cent. of the present standing committee. It is only natural to expect, in view of that, that some of the racetrack owners will have their nomination submitted to the Minister for selection.
If I got the assurance that I have mentioned from Mrs. O'Carroll that she and her Party would press their amendment and vote on it, I would support that amendment.