Horse Racing Ireland questioned over unspent CCTV grant money

The body was one of several questioned by the Public Accounts Committee, which also examined spend by Caranua, RTÉ and Children's Health Ireland

Sinn Féin TD and chair of the Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley said he was "'baffled' that Horse Racing Ireland had not spent the funding allocated to it for CCTV monitoring. File picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

The head of institutional abuse fund Caranua has been sharply criticised for requesting a meeting in private to discuss certain applicants to the service who were unhappy with their experience.

Rachel Downes, chief executive of the €111m fund, which is due to be decommissioned on Wednesday, has written to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to say that while Caranua “accepts” that two survivors have given permission for their cases to be discussed, nevertheless it is her position that she "could not discuss individual cases”.

“I suggested that members of the committee could discuss matters that were presenting as a concern after the hearing,” Ms Downes said of the meeting last December, adding she had received no such requests.

'Bizarre and unpleasant'

Speaking of this assertion at Tuesday morning’s PAC meeting, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy described the committee’s interactions with Caranua as having been “bizarre and unpleasant”.

He said that the request for a “private chat” had shown “an entire lack of appreciation of the role of the PAC”.

“If the history of this committee has shown us anything it’s that private conversations in car parks are not how business should be conducted,” he said, while calling for the secretary general at the Department of Education to outline how the residual funds and assets of the board would be dealt with.

Tuesday morning’s PAC meeting dealt with numerous correspondence relating to recent issues of contention.

Sharply criticised

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), the body with responsibility for the new National Children’s Hospital, was sharply criticised for roughly €204,000 in non-State-sanctioned expenditure in 2019, paid out for the development of a CHI jobs website and public relations services.

“It is not the amount of money, it is the principle,” Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry said. 

“Why do we need them in the first place?” he asked of the retention of Q4 Public Relations.

All told, CHI incurred €690,000 in non-compliant procurement expenses in 2019.

The hearing revealed that, of 433 freelance contractors working with State broadcaster RTÉ, all had had their terms of employment reviewed following an external investigation by consultants Eversheds Sutherland in 2018, leading to 81 of them being offered contracts of employment.

The issue of workers performing the roles of PAYE employees but receiving no State benefits, otherwise known as bogus self-employment, has become a key topic of interest for the current PAC, with prominent activist on the subject Martin McMahon due to appear before the committee next week.

'Absolutely baffled'

Meanwhile, chair of the committee Brian Stanley declared himself “absolutely baffled” as to how a €60,000 portion of funding allocated by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for the provision of CCTV monitoring at Ireland’s 25 racecourses in 2018 had never been used.

The issue received prominence following the drugging of a horse, Viking Hoard, with 100 times the legal limit of a tranquiliser before the horse raced at Tramore in October 2018, an incident which could have been prevented with adequate surveillance at courses, according to advocates.

“This money has gone back and forward,” said Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy. 

“It is not an onerous project to get 25 racecourses with CCTV installed.” 

To date, just two courses have been provided with CCTV coverage after €80,000, from HRI’s €9.1m ‘integrity budget’, was apportioned to that effect in 2019.

Separately, Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy, the State’s accountant, said he couldn’t understand how HRI had declared itself eligible for a derogation from revealing its employees’ salaries due to “commercial sensitivity” when banding information to that effect was recently provided to the Department of Agriculture.