GRI break pledge and provide just one care home for former racing dogs

Chairman of the sport's governing body, Frank Nyhan, acknowledges that GRI's return to profitability can be attributed to state funding. Picture: Maxwells

Just one new care home for retired racing greyhounds has been established by the sport's governing body, despite a pledge to have four in place by March 2022. 

Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI) had committed to the establishment of the new homes, one broadly in each geographical region of the country, which it said would represent “a significant expansion” of its care programme, in its just-published annual report for 2021.

Just one such home, in Croom in Limerick, has been established to date however, with GRI stating that all tenders for the project had come from the same region of Munster and south Leinster.

“Rásaíocht Con Éireann is currently seeking to identify other similar facilities in the three other regions and would appeal to prospective operators to express their interest with GRI,” a spokesperson for the body said.

The homes in question, as exemplified by the Croom example, are to feature on-site visitor rooms to facilitate engagement between the retiring animals and potential adopters, GRI said.

GRI’s annual report shows that pre-tax profits increased by 97% in 2021 to €2.94m, on the back of a return to competitive racing post-Covid.

However, chair Frank Nyhan acknowledged in the report that a large portion of that return to profitability is accounted for by the increased State allocation afforded to the sport in 2021 via the horse and greyhound fund, first established in 2001, which saw GRI receive €19.2m worth of subsidies last year. He said in his chairman's report: 

Income generated from gate admissions... were once again severely impacted by Covid-19 during 2021 and like other sporting organisations across the country, RCÉ has greatly benefited from government supports such as the Horse and Greyhound Fund.

The board’s outgoings on welfare, racing regulation, and governance, increased by just under €1m to €2.75m, GRI said, while attendances at race events were up 25% to a combined 158,029.

The annual report also details a sharp increase in legal fees incurred by GRI over the course of 2021 — up 87% from €199,550 to €373,667.

Some €300,000 worth of those fees were "associated with High Court injunction proceedings”, the board said, with €38,000 spent on employee dispute resolutions, and the remainder on legal fees in connection with third-party disputes.

Responding to the report, Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns, a frequent critic of the sport, called for the State’s funding of the industry to be phased out by 2025.