Tynan ‘had no choice but to go public’ over dope findings

AIDAN TYNAN, the former chief executive of Bord na gCon, yesterday defended his decision to go over the head of the authority’s board and inform the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism that two positive dope findings had been suppressed.

In his first public interview since he was sacked in January, he said he had no choice but to go public with the revelation, in order to uphold the authority’s mandate as the regulator for the greyhound industry.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Mr Tynan said that he felt that, with the board’s annual report due at the end of January, the situation could not have continued where the minister remained unaware the findings had been suppressed.

Mr Tynan repeated his contention that the reason his relationship with chairman Pascal Taggart and the board deteriorated from October 2005 was because he raised the subject of certain financial transactions that occurred prior his appointment, mainly concerning the refurbishment of Shelbourne Park Stadium.

He also defended himself against criticisms made by the board about his performance as chief executive. He asserted that the decision not to improve prize money on offer until 2009 was not his, but a board decision that preceded his appointment.

When asked about the remarks of one track manager that Mr Tynan wanted to run restaurants with greyhound tracks attached, the former chief executive agreed this was the case.

“This industry depends on exchequer funding. Without that we are very vulnerable,” he said.

Arguing that a night at the dogs had to be marketed as a social occasion, he said: “Restaurants are as important, if not more important, that than the greyhounds themselves.”

Mr Tynan was speaking on the eve of today’s meeting of the Dáil’s financial watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, which will be examining Bord na gCon’s accounts for 2004.

The outgoing chairman, Paschal Taggart, will attend the meeting and is expected to robustly stand over his stewardship of the industry.

The report by Tim Dalton into the controversy is expected to dominate the proceedings.

The committee is also expected to scrutinise the relatively high number of redundancy and severance deals in which the board was involved in the past decade. Fifteen staff accepted deals at a total cost of €1.1 million, including legal fees.