Greyhound racing - Facing an uncertain tomorrow

The greyhound racing industry— track racing not coursing — is struggling to make ends meet despite continued Government support worth something around €10m a year.

We may have reached the point where this long-standing business’s very survival comes into question.

Indeed, early, unconfirmed Irish Greyhound Racing

Board figures suggest that targets set in the industry’s 2013 to 2017 survival plan were far, far too optimistic and that current revenues are considerably below even that plan’s worst-case scenario predictions.

This trend, one influenced as much by changing social and entertainment tastes as economic factors, reflects recent developments in Britain and America where the industry is all but extinct. Not enough people want to watch, or more importantly, bet on-site on streamlined dogs chasing a furry toy around an oval any more.

In today’s digital, gaming-everywhere world, dog racing seems an anachronism, a relic of another time and a fading mindset. Attempts to widen the experience of an evening at the dogs with new restaurants and bars at some venues have enjoyed limited and sporadic success.

A growing awareness of the fate that might await retired or unsuccessful greyhounds may be a factor in this growing unpopularity too, especially in a world increasingly conscious of animal rights and increasingly determied to see them enforced.

The industry, though tiny in jobs and revenue terms compared to horse racing, gets about a third of the €30m — approximately — horse racing gets from Government coffers each year. And, in yet another one of those perfect Irish storms, the greyhound racing industry owes just over €20m to the state-owned bank AIB. How, or if, that debt will be repaid remains an open question.

The comptroller and auditor general’s assessment that the Irish Greyhound Board’s future depended on increasing Tote turnover has been nullified already because turnover has fallen rather than increased. If the figures recorded in the first half of this year are replicated in the second half, then Tote profits will fall to €4.3m. That is a 21% shortfall on the €5.5m target set in the vital 2012 survival plan.

And that’s not all. Last month, a report from consultants Indecon warned Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney that the Irish Greyhound Board’s five-year plan was already a year behind schedule. That report also advocated a sale of assets, specifically but not solely the highly-desirable Harold’s Cross track in Dublin to repay debt. The local objections were almost immediate though the protesters did not suggest how the books might be balanced.

A Government subvention of €10m is not exceptional and any decision to end it will hardly make a meaningful contribution to restoring equilibrium to our public finances.

However, the idea of subsidising something that is losing public support so very quickly should not, in these straitened times, go unquestioned. If nothing else, it sets a very poor precedent.