Greyhound board told to deal with concerns

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has said he is aware of concerns about the operation of the Irish Greyhound Board but that these are for the company itself to resolve.

Mr Coveney informed the Dáil that issues of corporate governance were raised with his department along with controversies surrounding the IGB’s enforcement of the regulations governing the industry.

These followed a series of reports in the Irish Examiner about the company and its construction of a new greyhound track in Limerick.

But Mr Coveney said while his department had been made aware of complaints, in the first instance they were sent back to the board to deal with.

“The concerns raised were principally operational matters within the competence and the responsibility of the board.

“Accordingly, where appropriate, officials within my department referred such concerns on to Bord na gCon for consideration, or, advised the complainant that the matters were proper to Bord na gCon, or, obtained clarification from Bord na gCon and conveyed the response to the complainant.”

In recent months, a string of details emerged of a gentleman’s agreement the IGB shook hands on that was supposed to cover millions of euro worth of development costs at its new track in Limerick.

Separately, an internal report into a race fixing scam in Dundalk highlighted a number of failures in the IGB’s initial investigation of the affair.

In addition, there had been concerns about the length of time it was taking for the IGB to finalise its accounts for 2011.

Last week, Fianna Fáil’s spokesman Éamon Ó Cuív asked Mr Coveney if he could explain the reason for the delay. The minister said his department had only received the accounts of the IGB on Mar 19, they were still to be considered, and would be laid before the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity.

A separate Freedom of Information request shows that prior to Mr Coveney’s response, his department had, unusually, received six sets of draft 2011 accounts from the IGB.All were considered by the department but sent back to the IGB.

A week before Mr Coveney's response, representatives of the IGB were at the offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General to discuss issues with the 2011 accounts. The company’s subsidiary accounts were published at the end of December.

The department is considering a request to extend the tenure of IGB chief Adrian Neilan. There has been a delay in this decision since the death of the minister responsible for the company, Shane McEntee. Before he died, Mr McEntee strongly endorsed Mr Neilan.