Taxpayer is a born loser as racing elite gets the sweetest subsidy of all

I WANT you to imagine the publication of a tribunal report. It’s a report into the way a particular business has been supported and its publication has been long awaited.

The tribunal has made various findings of fact. Their first is the revelation that this business, unknown to everyone, has been receiving vast sums of under-the-counter money. And those sums have come from the Government — a straight transfer of taxpayers’ money to one particular business.

As the story unfolds, it transpires the Government committed itself to giving the business in question a straight subsidy of €47 for every single customer it had.