By lot. Seven would go out at the first election, seven at the second election and seven at the third election. In that way you preserve a degree of continuity which is surely desirable, now that a very important industry admittedly has grown out of the scope for which the executive of the Irish Coursing Club was originally designed.
May I make this appeal to Deputies? This is a Bill about the principle of which we have got substantial agreement. There is ample scope in the course of the Committee Stage of this Bill for people to say things calculated to give the most bitter personal offence to persons intimately associated with the industry. I am proceeding on the assumption that we all want to get this whole greyhound business on a satisfactory basis, then let it run itself and let the Legislature get out of it as much as we can. Would I trespass too far on the indulgence of my colleagues if I asked them, in so far as they can, to refrain from severe animadversion on the status that has obtained up to now? Whatever it was, the greyhound industry is there. But for many people, it would not be there at all. We would not want this Bill if certain regulative measures were not required. I cannot think that Deputies on the far side believe it to be, in general principle, desirable to wipe out the whole existing executive and to bring in an entirely new one. Surely it is manifest that it is desirable to maintain some continuity of the council provided we have the overriding assurance that, within a limited and definitely ascertained time, there will be a completely new council founded on strictly representative principles.
I can see that, if you were arguing logic in vacuo, you could make the case: if the present situation is not satisfactory, why not change it now? I think the only answer is that it is rarely good to tear a building to pieces and to try to put up a brand new one in its place. It is much better, if you can, to change the thing by degrees provided you are certain that there is a limit to the period in which the complete change must be made. There is a strict limit in this Bill and I suggest to Deputies that this is a reasonable way to go about it so as to get, in the end, a satisfactory representative body functioning as the executive of the Irish Coursing Club and still preserving the thread of continuity so that there will not be any upheaval which may wreak great disadvantage to the industry as a whole.
I am not asking Deputies on any side of the House to approve or disapprove of the régime that has gone before but would I trespass too far on the goodwill of Deputies if I asked them to bear in mind that this Bill is designed to create a new departure? There is a body of men who operated this industry since 1916, when they separated it from the British Coursing Club, and they carried it on down to to-day. Many of us will approve and many of us will disapprove of some things that were done. If everything were perfect, this Bill would not be necessary. But we all know they constituted themselves originally to deal with coursing and, because there was no other body to control greyhound racing, when it became popular after the first World War, this body took over the responsibility for greyhound racing which mushroomed up into something very much larger and more difficult than they anticipated when they first put their hand to its control.
I wish we could get this Bill through the House with the reasonable goodwill of all the parties associated with this industry so that, without trampling on anybody's susceptibilities unnecessarily, we all could feel that, when this legislation was enacted, we could float all these people off and say to them: "You have the machine to run your industry satisfactorily and, if you do not, it is your own funeral. The Legislature will not do any more about it."
Therefore, I would suggest to Deputies that, instead of asking for the strict letter of logic in regard to this matter, they would accept that the gradual process of reform is better than the revolutionary one. I think you can make a case that you ought to have the first 21 members of the executive of the Irish Coursing Club elected as the whole existing executive put to the hazard of election without more ado but a much stronger case can be made, in the interests of the industry itself, in the interests of continuity, for postponing by three stages the change of the entire body from its existing system of choice to that of democratic choice by the race tracks and coursing clubs of the provinces. That is the argument and I would strongly recommend to Deputies not to press the view that the whole existing executive of 21 should be swept aside and a new one appointed in toto at one go. From the point of view of the industry, it would be infinitely better to do this thing in three stages, so long as we have the assurance in the end that, once the process has been initiated, it must proceed within two and a half years' time to completion.