Bord na gCon are proud of their achievements

Bord na gCon would like to comment on and totally refute key misinformed points as presented by the Irish Examiner edition on Tuesday, May 8.

The report incorrectly stated that there was a €5m budget overspend on the complex that houses the new Bord na gCon headquarters and Limerick Greyhound Stadium.

This was an alarming misinterpretation of the real facts. There was no overspend. The board’s executive management delivered the Greenpark project under budget and on time.

Bord na gCon would like to point out that it has significant capacity to meet all its financial obligations to the satisfaction of banking partners and the State-run Comptroller and Auditor General’s office which monitors the organisation’s financial operations on an annual basis.

Furthermore, Bord na gCon have already committed to spending €2.6m in capital developments in 2012 to further enhance the industry’s network of racing operations countrywide.

Finally, Bord na gCon have delivered combined surplus operational profits in excess of €17.1m over the past five years, which is on a par with the previous five year period (2002-2006).

This is a remarkable performance given the current recession and vastly suppressed consumer spending.

This surplus was delivered despite reductions of €2m from the Horse & Greyhound Fund whilst supporting the industry with close to €1m additional prize money, compared to the previous five-year period.

We are very proud of our achievements for our world leading industry where we have seen the popularity of the sport grow outside of the country around the world and which has also seen the board achieving new worldwide content export deals which will be worth over €1m profit contribution over the next two years.

We are totally committed to moving this industry forward.

In this context this article was very misguided and unfortunately agenda-driven against the greyhound industry.

Phil Meaney

Teresa Wall

Billy O’Dwyer

Tim Gilbert

Mattie Murphy

Brendan Moore

Tony McNamee

Adrian Neilan

Bord na gCon HQ

Green Park

Dock Road

Limerick

* Editor’s note: Bord na gCon has been afforded an opportunity to reply to our articles of May 8. However, we wish to stress that we stand over the entirety of the investigation.